After Panama Leaks, WikiLeaks, Dawn Leaks, Dhamaka.Com, etc., the world is listening to audio leaks, which have links to the Prime Minister’s House conversations. There are different opinions about these conversations and the objectives of their leak. One opinion is that this is not a matter of hijacking the conversations from some online connections but seems to be bugging, which means also a breach of our security measures. These conversations belong to the Prime Minister House of Pakistan, and recording all sorts of conversations from there is something very serious. Some people are calling it a failure of the current Prime Minister and his government. It is not something to be proud of. It is a matter of serious and in-depth inquiry. The thinking and planning of the rulers that were exposed by these audios were not impressive anyway. Our public generally expects even worse from our politicians and governments. Therefore, if these conversations are astounding after all, they are astounding only in intellectual circles. Many intellectuals are looking at the matter based on the damage and its benefits. Who will benefit and who are the people who could be, at least, ridiculed a lot?
The objectives of the Panama leaks, Wiki leaks, and Dhamaka.Com were to expose the corruption and plunder of tyrannical powers. Pakistani audio leaks seem to be the job of a single person or a few people. But for the Panama leaks, a group of hundreds of journalists worked for six years, and well-settled anti-status quo powers were behind them. In the Panama Papers, 11.5 million leaked documents were published. There were hundreds of people whose corruption and plundering was mentioned in the papers with documents. These papers led to the hidden wealth of the world’s tycoons. There was a separate list of the people who were mentioned as beneficiaries, shareholders, and directors of offshore companies. Leaked in 2016, these papers provide details of over 214,488 offshore entities that were created by Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca to evade taxes and other money fraud.
Coming to these audio leaks, it is quite a different case. Calling the National Security Council’s urgent meeting was the right decision on this occasion. Politicians and government people must realise that these are not only the ordinary people of the country who need to be very careful about national security and other sensitive matters. People playing important roles in society must be much more careful about their duties and behaviours. An ordinary person is OK if he doesn’t commit crimes. But politicians and rulers need to be extremely careful all the time. All the people sitting in any important institution can’t be angels, and any institution or with its title, any person must not be made prey to mockery. I have already expressed it and once again will express it here that if a politician considers himself very popular and strong in this country for any reason, he must not forget that the armed forces of Pakistan are the most beloved creatures in this country and the more he poses himself against Pakistan’s armed forces, the more he will lose his popularity and acceptability. This is the public’s mood and verdict. After knowing this fundamental reality, if someone comes into the field of politics, he will smoothly make his place in people’s hearts.
Our armed forces are the symbol of our unity and the country’s strength. Individuals are collective, on their own or by quoting others’ examples to criticise the armed forces or judiciary, which is formidable. If there are some procedural drawbacks causing damage to good military-civil bureaucracy, they could be discussed thoroughly in the offices and on proper platforms. Public platforms are not a place for discussing such things. Lawmaking and bringing amendments to the constitution are in the hands of politicians. They can bring such issues to the parliamentary debate. “We are red hot iron who will come closer, will be burnt out” must not be the attitude of any institution. If institutions can agree on one point only, then there will be compulsorily harmony among all the institutions of the country. That one point is “obedience to the people of the country in all cases”.
It is so nice that government people have not denied the facts recorded in these leaked audios. If there is some unethical talk or some conversation involving illegal practice or favouritism, the rulers should apologise for that. Without confessing their own mistakes, they will not be in a position to reach and punish the culprits involved in such sensitive crimes. It is rumoured that the hacker has demanded ransom money from the government, but nothing has been settled. Now there are more rumours on social media about hackers’ messages. After failing in negotiations, he terminated all the offers and ultimately announced in his last message: “For undisclosed reasons, I will be releasing all files this Friday, September 30.” These social media messages seem to be unreliable. But one can’t say anything positive. If social media is carrying his/her real messages, then it is a great challenge for the security people to reach the culprits. All the concerned citizens are impatiently looking for the drop seen in this drama.
