Faisal Vawda ‘predicted’ Faiz Hameed verdict ‘a long time ago’

Senator Faisal Vawda on Thursday said the unprecedented conviction of former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Faiz Hameed was “just the beginning”, saying the ex-spymaster was now providing evidence in his trial against former Prime Minister Imran Khan and others in connection with the May 9 events.

In an article on “14 years in prison…this is the beginning,” he wrote.

The former federal minister stressed that Hameed’s conviction related to “only one case (four counts)” and that trials in other cases, including those related to May 9, were still ongoing. He said the testimony Hameed allegedly gave “against Khan Sahab/Jadoogar and others” would not reduce the former intelligence chief’s sentence.

Vawda also walked back his long-standing claim that he was expelled from the PTI “a year before May 9” because he had warned the party leadership not to pursue this course of action. “I said at the time that once they took the path of May 9, there would be no going back,” he added.

He warned that PTI members involved in the May 9 violence, including those who had since “stepped aside”, would not escape responsibility, nor would “those who used their pen against Pakistan ([former Supreme Court judge] Athar Minallah)”, or even those who “still lead politics in the same direction today”.

Learn more: Former ISI chief Faiz Hameed sentenced to 14 years in prison by military court

Vawda then congratulated the army chief: “The nation wholeheartedly loves the commander of its victorious army, Asim Munir. The reason is that what has not happened in 75 years has now begun… the foundation of justice has been laid within its own institution.” He said the developments had proved that “no general, no judge and no political leader is greater than Pakistan. Pakistan is above all.”

Vawda reiterated that “those who tell stories of killings, violence, abuses and aiding enemies against Pakistan” would no longer be given “an inch of space” and would become an example of “legality”. He said: “Barbarism will be used to bring anti-state elements to their final fate.” “Pakistan will always live,” he added.

“Next May 9, the animators”

Furthermore, the senator said that the decisive phase would take place once the verdicts in the May 9 cases were delivered.

Referring to the PTI, he said the political party behind the violent protests would “see its fate written on the wall”, adding that the justice process “will not stop now”. He argued that the real reckoning was in the still-pending cases related to the May 9 unrest, which he accused the PTI and its founder Imran Khan of orchestrating.

He said the events of May 9 had unleashed “destruction” and damaged “the state, politics, the justice system and democracy,” alongside an alleged attempt to take control of the media. With this latter conviction, “the foundations have been laid: nothing is greater than Pakistan; the principle of responsibility and reward has now been established.”

Read also: “No one is above the law”: journalists and politicians welcome the conviction of Faiz Hameed

The former PTI leader claimed that the party responsible had indulged in “drama”, while its founder had overseen ferocity that led to harm against the people and attacks on national institutions, martyrs’ memorials and state symbols.

He claimed to have repeatedly warned his former colleagues that such actions had “no way back”, only to be expelled from the party for it. He stressed that the fact that “their own [army’s] the man’s trial was not interrupted” marked an unprecedented change.

The senator said the central problem in Pakistan has long been the absence of a functioning accountability system. “Army chief General Asim Munir initiated this corrective process within his own institution.”

Vawda added that those who facilitated the violent protests on May 9 would also be “annihilated”, adding that if the armed forces were unwilling to spare their own, “do you think the others will remain safe?”

He said this was just the beginning, with “many accusations still pending” against PTI leaders, judges at the time and other individuals who “thought they were bigger than Pakistan” but now find themselves politically isolated.