Courtesy: Daily "The News" (4 August 2012)
The dirt games...Legal eye
Babar Sattar
Mohammad Ali is celebrated as a great fighter because other than being a tremendous athlete he knew when to hold his punches. But most fighters worry little about their legacy and focus squarely on winning. Elections are a fight too. They produce winners and losers. And like in all other fights some chose to fight dirty. At the end of the day, the support or lack-thereof for tactics employed in politics is a matter of taste. Politics is a dirty business. In an election year you see a lot of dirt smeared around even in mature democracies. Some judge those who are smeared. Others judge those doing the smearing. Elections campaigns whether negative or positive bring forth information into public domain. And as constituents we have a right to judge the information, those bringing it and the manner in which it is brought.
By now it is settled that someone who vies for public office doesn’t have the same right to privacy as an ordinary citizen, as privacy must give way to the public’s right to information. If someone paddles lies about you, you can take them to court for defamation. If someone expresses an opinion about that paints you black, you respond with your arguments and let people decide who is right. The theory of democracy suggests that in a marketplace of ideas where political leaders have more or less equal access to the media, the superior argument wins. Thus in reacting to the accusations levelled by the PML-N, there is no room for Imran Khan and the PTI to mount a high horse. If they want the job of managing this country, voters have a right to seek answers to all prickly questions.
....................
