KARACHI: In a thinly veiled reference to the powerful military-led establishment, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khurshid Ahmed Shah have called for an across-the-board accountability to prove that there are no “sacred cows”.

The two PPP leaders expressed their sentiments in a calculated and cautious manner, but at the same time were extremely critical of a much-trumpeted accountability process that is apparently being carried out at the behest of the military establishment against politicians and civil officials only.

Mr Rabbani spoke as the chief guest at an elocution contest organised in memory of the late Fatehyab Ali Khan in Karachi on Wednesday, while Mr Shah issued a statement in Islamabad.

“Today anyone whose views and opinions clash with the people in authority is seen as a corrupt person or a loser. This has become too much of a joke,” said the Senate chairman. “I agree that political workers are corrupt. Most are but does this make the rest of the country and those working in the military as well as civil sectors clean?”

About special courts, Mr Rabbani said: “Have the special courts been set up to try political figures alone? No, sir! If I have to be tried, do it in a court where my peers, the common people, are being tried. Or try us all in your special courts. There should be no difference here. We are all equal in the eyes of the law.”

He further said: “There is no holy cow here. Ehtesab, or accountability, should be carried out across the board. We must check the National Accountability Bureau, too. But who will carry out the accountability of the institution holding others accountable?”

Similar views were also shared by PPP leader Khurshid Shah. He said his party would never support any extra-constitutional step and never allow “institutions to ridicule politicians”.

“Accountability must be across the board and the concept of sacred cows should end now,” he said, adding that the PPP-led federal government did not use any institution against its political opponents during its entire tenure.

The opposition leader demanded that a parliamentary committee be formed to stop what he called partiality in the accountability process.

And at the debate programme, Mr Rabbani also suggested formation of a national commission for common people. Turning his attention to students and teachers sitting before him in the Urdu University auditorium, the Senate chairman said the history being taught in Pakistan was not the “real history” of this country. “It has been designed to prepare a special kind of mindset. Your course books are missing important portions of democratic struggles and you are being taught to eulogise the ruling elite and glamourise wars,” he pointed out.

“Today even I am told that Sindhi culture is not really my culture and neither are the cultures of Balochistan, Punjab or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mine. I’m told to follow Arabs because as Muslims we should have the same culture as the Arabs. But sorry, I cannot do that,” he said.

“Tell me how will the feeling of ownership come this way? Fake nationalism we have seen. But real nationalism comes from a feeling of ownership, when you feel you belong somewhere. But sadly that feeling was not allowed to develop. It was killed by General Ziaul Haq.”

Published in Dawn October 1st, 2015

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