PTI Patron-in-Chief Imran Khan has been allowed bail by the Supreme Court in a number of May 9 cases, which caused the more over-optimistic PTI supporters to demand that he be released forthwith. It doesn’t work that way, not in the criminal justice system he himself left unreformed during his stint in office. He is currently in jail serving a 14-year sentence for the Al-Qadir University land grab, and can only be released if the case is dismissed on appeal, or if he is given bail in that case. As the Supreme Court stressed while overturning the Lahore High Court’s decision rejecting his bail, bail does not mean that the trial must not be conducted, but as moat followers of the court system know, getting bail in a higher court increases the chances of acquittal by the trial court. It is only right to say that the PTI has reason to celebrate.
Is it entirely a coincidence that DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry chose the same day to issue a clarification of remarks in a press interview that Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir made? The clarification said that Field Marshal Munir had not said that any apology was needed for the 9 May 2023 events. This must be balanced with the Field Marshal’s statement during the same interview that the rumours of a change of either the President or Prime Minister were false. It does seem that there are wheels within wheels, for the PTI has suspended the decision about the new Leaders of Opposition in the National Assembly and Senate, until the current holders of those offices, who have been denotified after they lost their seats, consequent on their conviction in May 9 cases, have exhausted the appeals process.
At the same time, some of those convicted are among the accused in other cases. It seems that there is a degree of mixed signalling, at least in public, relative to May 9. The events of May n9 may well have been horrendous and without precedent, but the nation as a whole, not just any particular institution, needs closure on the whole episode, which means the trial of those accused of related crimes. May 9 was too nerve-wracking for the country as a whole, to be reduced to a mere Damocles’ sword to be held over the heads of any party, or politician.
