Daily Times

Sir: I am willing to bet that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Safdar have neither read the Panama Paper’s case nor the Constitution. They have committed contempt of court non-stop since the verdict has been announced through their political propaganda.

They have been claiming that the disqualification of Nawaz was illegal and a grave injustice. They continue to claim that Nawaz was disqualified merely for holding a Dubai work permit and not taking a salary from a company owned by his son.

This false narrative of victimhood has been supported by the Federal and Punjab governments, which have continued to provide resources to arrange public meetings in cities dominated by PML-N members of the National and Provincial Assemblies. Encouraged by the number of people attending these public gatherings, they have openly condemned the Superior Judiciary, painting them as villains who have illegally victimised and persecuted the Sharif family. Their latest slogan is that the people have rejected the Panama Papers case verdict.

The logic that the will of a mob can overrule a verdict of the superior courts is unique to the Sharif family and the PML-N. Nawaz and Maryam should be well aware that it is the judiciary’s role to check the misuse of executive authority and interpret laws enacted by the parliament to ensure that those who create the law are not above the law themselves. Pakistan is a republic, not a kingdom.

ST HUSSEIN

Lahore

Published in Daily Times, February 22^nd 2018.