Daily Times

“They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah.” One may not look any further than the twisting, turning roller-coaster ride of Pakistan Muslim League (N) in Pakistani politics to be overwhelmed with how Allah’s word shines through when all doors appear bolted shut and all hopes fizzled. On the heels of the historic acquittal of Vice President Maryam Nawaz in the Avenfield reference, a special court in Lahore has announced yet another verdict in the favour of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz in the falsely manufactured case of money laundering.

Allah has, definitely, been very kind to pulling the curtains and exposing how precious state institutions were forced to dabble in the expensive exercise of listening to fabricated cases created for the sole purpose of political victimisation. But while there is no denying the extraordinary resilience of a party battered blue and black for its one unforgivable crime–adhering to democracy–our leader Mian Nawaz Sharif hit the mark when he questioned why were five precious years of his life wasted in the name of petty propaganda.

Avenfield and Benami Accounts are both massive legal victories for the PML(N) and now all that’s left is for the sunshine to truly shine through is Mian Sb to be reunited with his voters and his family.

A lie can only go around the world as long as reality is pulling its boots on!

As for who orchestrated this bloodied chaos to unroll the red carpet for themselves, sit on a seat intended for service and turn it into Nero’s throne, the devil lies in the details. All it took for someone high and mighty to jump from “not having come to politics to check the prices of tomatoes, onions and potatoes” to shamelessly painting a calamity-hit economy as shambolic on account of prices of everything under the sun was a change in the chair. Back when attention to these crucial matters mattered, which, in turn, would have helped ensure the happiness, welfare and prosperity of the masses, they were broadcasted as nothing but storm in a teacup. Millions of Pakistanis being pushed against a wall were told to relax because this was the price they had to pay for ushering in Naya Pakistan. Today, when the entire world has been left rattled by the scope of devastation rendered by a “monsoon on steroids” and “flood of biblical proporsions,” such dirty politicking aims to diminish all the good work PML(N) and its finance team is doing day in and out.

Before I digress further because the hypocritical double standards tend to rile me up a bit, what went down in Lahore in favour of our prime minister and his just-as-innocent son is only the beginning. Like it or not, truth manages to break free of even iron shackles. A lie can only go around the world as long as reality is pulling its boots on! The honourable judge said it best when reprimanded the FIA for making cases out of thin air on just malice. And while one family has been very determinedly surviving the constant onslaught of slander, violence and vile abuse for more than five years and whoever dared raise their voice in its support turned into a social pariah, who is to ensure that all those who twisted the arms of the law and the law enforcement agencies for the fulfilment of their agendas are held accountable? A political and legal wrong has been righted, albeit too late but is political engineering also as critical of a crime whose perpetrators and abetters need to be tried before the law? The spree of disqualifications that started with Mian Nawaz Sharif and ended with the rightfully-earned mandate of Hamza Shahbaz Sharif was passionately carried through to pave the path for the blue-eyed boy to rise to the throne and broadcast to the world how he alone hung the moon and the stars. So what if this failed experiment pushed the country towards a breaking point; making it a laughing stock on the way?

Let’s leave the backbreaking process of restoring credibility to the name of Pakistan, its esteemed government and honourable citizens and how each and every single member of the PML(N) is painstakingly involved in this crucial mission as a personal crusade for some other day. For now, let’s relish in the fact: “When the truth is hurled against falsehood, falsehood perishes, for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish.”

The writer is a LUMS graduate and currently serves as PMLN MPA. She is a close aide of Maryam Nawaz
and tweets at @hinaparvezbutt