Statement of Senator Osman Saifullah
Khan, grandson of Ghulam Ishaq Khan, regarding the Supreme Court short order in
the petition brought by Asghar Khan.
There is much to be praised in the Court’s order, which reminds us
that ALL citizens of Pakistan are bound to act in accordance with our
Constitution. After the judgment it should be clear that it is the people of
Pakistan alone, acting through their elected representatives, who determine
what is and what is not in the national interest. Neither the Army nor the
Supreme Court can claim this right. And of course, if it is proved that money
was indeed used to tilt the playing field against the PPP, then it acknowledges
the wrong that was done to Pakistan’s largest political party and to the will
of its voters.
At the same time, as the eldest grandson of Ghulam Ishaq Khan, I
have found the events of the last eight months, culminating in the recent short
order deeply distressing. My grandfather left office in 1993 and passed away in
2006, spending the intervening thirteen years living quietly in his house in
Peshawar. I do so wish that during this time he had been confronted with the
allegations against him. That one of our many investigative journalists, or one
of our political leaders had drawn on their reserves of courage and pointed an
accusatory finger in his direction. Or that the Honourable Supreme Court had
taken up the petition in the decade that it remained pending and he remained
alive. The inordinate delay in the dispensation of justice denied him justice.
His reputation has summarily been executed.
Let us remind ourselves of this reputation. It was a reputation
acknowledged by men as different as Field Marshall Ayub Khan, Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto and General Zia ul Haq. It was a reputation that led to Shaheed Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto, the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear program, entrusting him with
the task of shepherding funding for this momentous undertaking. My grandfather
brought to this task the same fiduciary sense he displayed throughout the rest
of his long career. Today, when we are often at the door of the IMF and World
Bank, hand extended forward and palm upward, it is easy to forget that he was
the first and only Pakistani to Chair the World Bank’s Development Committee.
He left the Presidency quietly, choosing to retreat to a quiet life in his own
country, never benefitting financially or otherwise from his status as a former
Head of State. He was a President whose only son toiled away in obscurity
during his Presidency. There was to be no mercurial building up of assets with
a father like Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
A grandson is hardly an impartial defender of his grandfather’s
legacy. And in the instant case what can I defend him with? I have no facts to
offer in his defence because he never discussed affairs of state with his
family. He took very seriously the oaths of office that he took. Ghulam Ishaq
Khan, like all the rest of us, wasn’t perfect. He may have made mistakes. But
as much as I knew him there is no way, no way at all a person of his conscience
could condone let alone suggest such a blatant misuse of public funds.
I do wish he had been given a chance to defend himself. My
grandfather was a quiet, soft-spoken man. But even quiet people have the right
to be heard.
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