Daily Times

During his ‘homecoming’ rally to Lahore last week, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tried to pass himself off as a revolutionary. Who knows what prompted this latest ‘reincarnation’? Maybe it was the crowds that were there to greet him along the GT road. Or perhaps it was the fact that he was a man seen to be taking on the judiciary. Whatever the case, the idea of a fat cat industrialist and property tycoon recasting himself as a revolutionary was laughable to say the least.

To the waiting crowds, Nawaz reiterated that the SC had no business deposing a Prime Minister elected by the people. Yet again did he trot out the line about his dismissal pointing to a larger conspiracy hatched by enemies of the state put out by the progress Pakistan had been making under his stewardship. Naturally, he went on to blame unnamed forces for not allowing a single PM during the last 70 years to fulfil his tenure. Having already named the judiciary — this was likely a rather transparent jibe at the security establishment.

But Nawaz was not all about retrospection. Indeed, he was full of talk about his planned revolution for a ‘new Pakistan’. This, he said, was to be a Pakistan where justice would be speedy, housing cheap, health facilities vastly improved and, most importantly a Pakistan where Premiers would not be deposed.

To Mian Nawaz Sharif we say, allow us a little perspective. After all, this is a man who has served Pakistan on the political front in one way or another for the last 33 years, 17 of which he spent ruling the Punjab. Thus he has no right to lament the serious lack of amenities available to ordinary folk in the province. Indeed, he should hang his head in shame at this admission of resounding failure. And once he has done that — he should do the decent thing and denounce a career in politics once and for all.

Nawaz built this entirely upon the legacy of Zia-ul-Haq. Indeed, he has often been heard vowing to complete the good General’s ‘mission’. He may talk of the injustice of civilian leaders having their rule interrupted — but he himself has been among the principle conspirators and beneficiaries of the ousting of four civilian governments since 1985.

We had hoped that following his own toppling at the hands of a military coup back in 1999, combined with his escaping the hangman’s noose for a stint in exile and the signing of the Charter of Democracy with Benazir Bhutto things would be different this time. But this particular leopard seemingly enjoys his spots just as they are. Thus he filed a petition before the Supreme Court against then President Asif Ali Zardari accusing him of seeking American help in stalling an ‘imminent’ military coup. The head of both the Army and the ISI were his main witnesses in that case. In short, the objective was nothing less than the removal of President Zardari from office through court orders. And if this had led to imprisonment then so much the better. In the end, he had to rely on Article 63 of the Constitution with which he is now so familiar to send him his nemesis packing.

Mian Saab has ever so innocently been asking the question: how is it that I have been deposed simply for not withdrawing a salary from my son’s company? A better question to ask is this: is it morally and legally justified for the Prime Minister of a country to be on the payroll of a foreign-based company?

As for his own four years in power — what did he do to restore civilian supremacy? The answer is nothing. Instead it was on his watch that we have seen the establishment of military courts, the use of military and Interior ministry troops to paralyse the provincial government of Sindh. Even today, that latter is not being permitted to appoint its provincial police chief.

Nawaz has always had a tumultuous relationship with the apex court. There have been instances of de-notification of scores of judges back in 1995 whom the PMLN didn’t like; the removal of the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Sajjad Ali Shah by pro Nawaz judges in 1997; and then, too, was the Memogate scandal. Yet throughout all this never once did he move to amend article 184(3) of the Constitution, the very same that today gives him so many sleepless nights.

And then there is the matter of the innocent question Mian Saab has been asking since July 28: how is it that I have been deposed simply for not withdrawing a salary from my son’s company? A better question to ask is this: is it morally and legally justified for the Prime Minister of a country to be on the payroll of a foreign-based company?

It would have been better if Nawaz had momentarily put aside the personal to study the charges against him, the questions the SC has been asking and the final JIT report. Of course, it would have been better for all concerned had he admitted the game was up back on April 5, 2016 — the day that the Panama scandal broke. That, at least, would have shown good grace. But alas and alack we don’t go in for graceful exits much.

The writer is a political analyst and freelance columnist based in Islamabad

Published in Daily Times, August 17^th 2017.