The art of propaganda is an impressive art and people who use it as a tool for shaping narratives are doing their utmost to shape the discourse of the public sphere. Things are presented in black or white, where facts reside somewhere in between those two extremes. The much expected and anticipated dismissal of the former Prime Minister from his office is being hailed and peddled as the beginning of a new chapter in this nation’s history.
This scribe is on record, where he predicted the fate of then-cornered Premier very accurately at this forum. The day the apex court rendered the decisive verdict, the anti-Nawaz camp celebrated it as a major victory. Yours truly, with all his arm chair analysis and predictions, for the record, was dismayed for being proven right. Why so, you may ask.
Well, after months of deliberations inside the apex court, the daily panchayat like media briefing outside the court, and nightly mind numbing debates on the tube, the basis for disqualification was very narrow. With utter respect for the apex court, it entertained a highly charged, divisive and an ultra-political case. Expectations were extremely high that its efforts will be exhaustive and it will arrive at undeniable and irrefutable verdict.
The explanations and arguments provided by the legal pundits for and against the verdict aside, you must pause and think from a common person’s perspective. A defendant who was compared with the infamous “Sicilian” mafia and labeled as a “Godfather”, failed to declare the -salaries that he could have collected from his son’s company. From the perspective of a common man, justice was done but perhaps not received as being done.
Never mind that; the apex court gave the defendants ample chances and time to produce evidence or a trail of their acquisitions of the properties in question. To the common folks – the voters and supporters – they feel the basis for disqualification was a bit too stringent on their leader. The followers feel that their leader was singled out because his detractors want him to fail and disappear, so on and so forth.
The incumbents amplified this narrative in their 4-day adventure on the road, en-route from Islamabad to Lahore, when the ex-Prime Minister left the office to head back home. At various stops, he addressed the rallies and repeated the same message rather bluntly. His basic argument was that he was wrongly terminated, and there was a conspiracy behind this entire episode. Rationally, one may agree with him -based only on a narrow interpretation of the law by the apex court, and that’s about it.
Where Mr. Sharif was perhaps out of line was when he kept on repeating that verdict was preordained and that the five honorable judges merely endorsed it. Here, the conduct of the Ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan was less than stellar, because the ex-PM alleged a conspiracy, yet failed to name or shame the conspirators.
Even if the rhetoric was meant to stir up the core base, the remarks were very questionable and, at times, regrettable. The former PM vowed to the crowds that he would protect the sanctity of their vote, and that from here on, no Prime Minister would be meted out such humiliation. It all sounded very noble and well intentioned; yet there is something that needs to be clarified for the sake of lucidity and facts.
Unlike any of his predecessors, the now ex-Prime Minister willingly — with express consent — offered himself and his entire family for accountability. Given our checkered history, Mr Sharif should have used his legal rights and constitutional immunity as Prime Minister before walking into such an open-ended legal engagement
Unlike any of his predecessors, Mr. ex-Prime Minister willingly – with express consent – offered himself and his entire family for accountability. Given our checkered history, Mr. Sharif should have used his legal rights and constitutional immunity as a Premier before walking into such an open-ended investigation.
So one may discern that ultimate outcome was unfavorable, but nobody coerced him to present himself to such contentious accountability. The sole interview that ex-PM gave to the British Broadcasting Service (BBC) Urdu Service was a regurgitation of the same lines that he had delivered in his rallies. Therefore, the post-disqualification theme and direction taken by the ex-PM and his party is more or less the same. His sudden urge for restoring the sanctity of the vote is an afterthought.
No matter how hard he tries, his predicament will not change. The damage has been done; even now, his actions are too late and of manufactured significance. The review petition filed with the apex court, which highlights legal objections, should ordinarily have been raised at the beginning of -or at least during – the trial.
Philosophically, Mr. Sharif is reaping what he has sown for so many years. The once-darling of the Establishment, who participated in many maneuverings of the past to weaken other elected governments, got checkmated unexpectedly. Now he is trying to paint himself in a new persona – as a reformer and simultaneously as a rebel – and failing, quite simply. People who were bitten by him in the past are unwilling to buy his new mantra. The road to redemption is perhaps way too bumpy for our Mian Sahib.
The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at [email protected] and tweets @dasghar
Published in Daily Times, August 28th 2017.