In a watershed moment in July 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was untruthful and untrustworthy for failing to declare his deemed income from his son. This decision was based on the findings of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed in early 2017 to investigate corruption allegations against Nawaz Sharif and his family in the Panama Papers case. This report provided the Supreme Court with much-needed fodder to disqualify Mr Nawaz Sharif from holding public office for life, a decision that the court allegedly had already made at the behest of the establishment but needed a shoulder from which to shoot its gun, which the JIT provided in the form of accusing Nawaz Sharif and his family members, including Maryam Nawaz, of several financial irregularities. The decision’s merits remained a source of debate and criticism from many quarters. Legal experts argued that the Supreme Court had overstepped its bounds and that the decision could set a dangerous precedent for future cases. Nawaz Sharif, who never accepted the decision, called it politically motivated and designed to weaken his party. However, this was not the first time Nawaz had been deposed prematurely. He was removed from office in April 1993, citing corruption allegations, and again on October 12, 1999, on charges of corruption, hijacking, and terrorism, and yet again in 2017 on failing to declare certain assets in his election nomination papers and was barred from holding public office for life, including as leader of his political party. On July 6, 2018, he was sentenced to ten years in prison in the Avenfield corruption case, and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, was sentenced to seven years. Nawaz Sharif was granted bail on medical grounds in December 2019 and left Pakistan for medical treatment in London. In November 2020, the Islamabad High Court revoked his bail, and he was ordered to surrender to Pakistani authorities upon his return. The government appears to be in a better position with power pieces, but the game is far from over, as the player with the pawns can still use them strategically to block the power pieces and control key squares on the board. Nawaz and Maryam endured the decision and its consequences but neither forgave Imran nor Saqib Nisar. Recent events in Zaman Park presented them with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which they eagerly took, charging Imran Khan as a terrorist and his party as a terrorist party, and immediately establishing a JIT to investigate the charges. Nawaz Sharif’s posture, body language, and confidence in a recent interview indicated that he was the mastermind behind the idea to use JIT as a proven tool to permanently fix Imran Khan. Why was a JIT formed to investigate Imran Khan? Nawaz Sharif, who had never forgotten the treatment he received from the establishment and the judiciary, as well as their project Imran Khan, is dead set on using the tried-and-true weapon of JIT to declare Imran Khan ineligible to hold any public office for the rest of his life. Perhaps, everything is coming together now. According to the government, the strategy of encircling Imran Khan on all sides and then physically or politically removing him from the national discourse is working. Filing over 100 FIRs, chasing him and embroiling him in courts across the country, aiming to arrest and imprison him at the first available opportunity to neutralise him physically and politically is working according to their point of view. Ms Maryam has vowed that elections will not be held in the country until there is a level playing field, which, according to her, is equated with absolving Nawaz Sharif of all charges; allowing him to come to Pakistan without being arrested and his status as party leader is restored and Imran khan like Nawaz Sharif should endure all those treatments which were slapped on Nawaz Sharif. To achieve this end, the government is utilising all powers thankfully bestowed upon it by Imran Khan himself in the form of dissolved provincial assemblies; allowing them to pursue Imran Khan in any direction they choose. Let us examine the chessboard. The PML(N) controls all power structures, including governments in all provinces and the centre, the Election Commission, civil and military bureaucracies, and government resources, and enjoys the combined political capital of thirteen political parties. Imran Khan, on the other hand, is a chess player with both his own and the government’s pawns. The government appears to be in a better position with power pieces, but the game is far from over, as the player with the pawns can still use them strategically to block the power pieces and control key squares on the board. So far, so good. Imran Khan is successfully managing FIRs and neutralizing numerous audio and video leaks, wriggling out of Toshakhana, foreign funding, and the Tyrian Jade Khan White case, and prudently providing defence in contempt of court cases. But, how would he respond to the latest JIT weapon, which aims to label him a terrorist and his party a terrorist party? Perhaps, he will blunt the JIT weapon in the same way that he has blunted the other weapons by using pawns to first contain the power pieces and then neutralise them one by one. Unfortunately, disregarding the perils faced by the country on all fronts, they are still settling personal vendettas against each other at the expense of the country’s financial and economic health and making the people struggle to make ends meet. We are all aware that the solution to the country’s quagmire lies in keeping national interests supreme, which primarily lies in upholding the constitution regardless of what happens. This simple solution, however, seems too difficult and impossible to implement, when decisions are made to protect personal interests at the expense of violating the constitution, putting the country in dire economic and financial straits with no way out. And, perhaps, this JIT is also a good tool for settling personal scores while ignoring the risk of sending the country into another dangerous spiral. The writer is a former press secretary to the President and former press minister to the Embassy of Pakistan to France.