-Regime change conspiracy
By Makhdoom
Shehryar Babar
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday penned a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, urging him to constitute a Judicial Commission to investigate the “regime change conspiracy”, which former prime minister Imran Khan claims was behind his ouster from the top office.
The letter from the president to the top judge comes less than two weeks after Imran wrote a similar letter to the president and CJP Bandial, requesting a public inquiry as well as the formation of a judicial commission to probe the “threat letter”.
In his letter today, Dr Alvi suggested to the CJP that the proposed judicial commission should preferably be headed by him and must conduct open hearings to “thoroughly probe the allegations of regime change conspiracy to avert a political and economic crisis in the country”.
The president said the world had seen myriad examples of “regime change” where operations were conducted through conspiracies to change a particular government and such plots were later confirmed by the declassification of top-secret documents.
He lamented that disclosures were made only when the destinies of those countries had been “significantly damaged by illegal interventions”. Emphasising the importance of the commission, the president warned that a serious political crisis was looming in Pakistan, saying major polarisation was also taking place in politics as well as among the people of Pakistan in the wake of recent events.
He stressed that it was the collective duty of all institutions to make utmost efforts to avert damaging consequences to the country and prevent further deterioration.
“It is regrettable that random comments are being quoted out of context, misunderstandings are fuelling, opportunities are being lost, confusions not dying down, and with the economy also in crisis, while the situation on the ground is approaching a political powder keg that may ignite at any time,” he said in the letter.
Dr Alvi pointed out that the Supreme Court had taken such initiatives in the past to constitute judicial commissions in matters of national security, integrity, sovereignty and public interest.
“A judicial commission, headed by [former] chief justice Nasir ul Mulk and two judges of the top court, inquired into rigging allegations in 2013 elections. Similarly, judicial commissions were also formed to investigate the Memogate matter, and moreover, a judicial commission is also currently functional for missing persons, that is headed by a sitting judge”, he observed.
He cited press reports as saying that the prime minister had also expressed his desire for a commission.
The president said the nation held the Supreme Court in high regard and “expects it to meet the expectations”. He added that the commission should investigate the matter “based not only on technicalities of law, but in the real spirit of justice”.
Dr Alvi said a judicial commission would be a “great service to the country as people deserved clarity on the matter”.
“Who knows better than your Honour that to prove, that a ‘smoking gun’ has been identified in the hand of a conspirator, or to find a possible money trail, or to identify meetings where people have been motivated towards cover action, or where people have been bought and sold, could be a vigorous exercise”, he added.
The president noted that he was of the strong opinion that “even recorded circumstantial evidence” could lead to some conclusions based not on technicalities of law but in the real spirit of justice.
He cited incidents such as the murder of former prime minister Shaheed Liaquat Ali Khan, the Agartala Conspiracy case, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s public waving of a letter and allegation of a conspiracy against him, President Ziaul Haq’s plane crash, Abbottabad incident and many others that, he said, remained inconclusive.
He regretted that people had alleged and strongly believed in such obvious but “unfortunately” unproven conspiracies.
Dr Alvi requested that the proposed judicial commission should conduct an in-depth and thorough investigation into the regime change conspiracy.
