REMEMBER the letter written by six judges of the Islamabad High Court alleging interference by intelligence agencies and state actors? The list of complaints included allegations of illegal surveillance of the judges and their families — presumably in the hopes of uncovering compromising material — all the way to direct and indirect threats. None of this came as a huge surprise to those who know how the system works, nor is the subsequent campaign waged against those judges unexpected. Most of us, I presume, simply shook our heads and said something to the effect of ‘this is Pakistan, this is just how things are’, and moved on with a lingering sense of shame at how impure our land is and how embarrassing it must be for the world to see all this. What would they think?

If you’re one of those people, I have some good news for you: we are not alone. No, sir! The fact is that the entire world is rotten to the core. In fact, we’re amateurs; the smallest of fries when compared to the truly global gangsters who play on a much wider international stage. Literally. In the sense that the court they tried to compromise is no less than the International Criminal Court (ICC) itself.

A detailed investigation by The Guardian and Israel’s 972........

© Dawn