Why Seeking NRO for jailed abroad cricketers is Justified!

Why Seeking NRO for jailed abroad cricketers is Justified!

By Muhammad Sarfraz Abbasi

The nation can not forget one of the biggest crimes of Retired General Musharraf who had passed an ordinance ''national reconciliation ordinance'' on October 5, 2007 before scheduled presidential elections. It is also talk of the town that at PPPP and Musharraf had developed consensus on this commonly known as black-law which was implemented with an intention to fool the Public of Pakistan. It was one of the biggest stupidities of the Musharraf that he gambled on an assumption that he would win the support of PPPP in winning legitimacy in disputed election. However, Musharraf remained greatly successful in it as after introducing the NRO, PPPP extended legitimacy for disputed elections as they did not resign from assemblies contrary to expectations. The black-law was introduced and implemented not for the nation or for its any benefit, in fact intention behind introduction of this black-law was to prolong illegal Musharraf regime and thus NRO is called as a fraud with nation' in the name of national reconciliation. However, at the end of the it was PPPP who won PMLN’s support in order to impeach Musharraf and forced him to leave first President’s position and then country and therefore who played with nation not only went of power but also of country and now a days gentleman is living in London and running a so called political party APML through telephonic command. This also shows the man’s vision and capability to look forward.

Now question is what was the result of NRO, even though this question is very important to ask and understand however a small classes arguably educated people does not take it seriously may be because of unawareness about it or may be because of their blind love with charismatic Gen. Musharraf. Biggest loss that country had to bear on the name of NRO was that, Government which was hijacked by Musharraf at that time withdrew all the cases of corruption registered against many well-known corrupt politicians. As a result of it, all the filed cases considered void and thus even before appearing in courts some politician received kind of pardon as well as those who were in jails also came out and those who were abroad on exiles returned back home.

What happened because of NRO? It had granted amnesty to politicians, workers of different political parties and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, money-laundering, murders and terrorism between 1986 and 1999. Resultantly, all those who were declared corrupt and were fighting their cases got the pardon and thus got their eligibility back to contest general elections of 2008. Most of them got elected also, became President and Prime Minister and many are now sitting in assemblies.

Why to demand an NRO for our crickets is not a million dollars worth question, it’s as simple as anything. Well, if cases registered against politicians can be taken back why not this can be repeated in case of cricketers? At least cricketers had an intention to bring money home which could have made stronger to Rupee against green pack other currencies and hence people would have got some relief in terms of lower inflation. Whereas, when politicians cheat they take money out by converting rupee into dollars which makes rupee weak against other currencies and increases inflation which put burden of inflation on common man. Thus, comparing sins of corrupt politicians and corrupt cricketers it simply tells that cricketers were trying to help the county (keeping other things like respect, dignity, pride etc etc constant) and thus an NRO for corrupt cricketers is justified.

Additional comments by writer: purpose of this note is simply not being an advocate of devils rather reminding the nation what exactly happened and what can happen through NRO like crimes if these issues are not taken seriously.