Daily Times

The Supreme Court has passed its verdict on petitions that it should not have taken up in the first place. The challenges to the Election Act of 2017 were as political as it can get: the amendment that enabled Nawaz Sharif to head the PML-N following his disqualification in the Panama Papers case was passed as a blow to changes introduced in the constitution by military dictators. Granted that it was meant to specifically benefit one person, but the amendment to the Election Act could have paved the way for purging the constitution of all other modifications done by undemocratic regimes, including Articles 62 and 63 themselves.

The verdict provides that any individual disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution cannot serve as the head of a political party. Yet the chances of Nawaz or the ruling PMLN taking this lying down are slim. For despite the apex court’s initial grounds for deposing a sitting Prime Minister being based on subjective interpretation of a questionable constitutional article — a simple appeal on behalf of Nawaz Sharif simply would not do. Meaning that the ruling party may leave nothing to chance; preferring to use the platform of the Parliament to demonstrate its insubordination before the highest court in the land.

Nawaz is still trying his best to be seen as the hard done by in all of this; in the face of a vengeful SC. And the latter, for its part, is not helping dispel this image. No matter how artfully constructed.  Not when it fails to take to task the military establishment’s so-called reformed assets; allowing them to contest elections without putting in place a verification process for the downing of arms.

Be that as it may, Nawaz must have known that this direct challenge to the SC’s authority would not have gone down well; regardless of who may or may not be supporting it. To some, it seems that provocation was what he was after. Meaning that he must also have been equally mindful that the apex court would seek to reverse any political decisions he has taken in his illegitimate role as party president. The fallout of which is that all this lends credence to the former PM’s cries of a witch-hunt against he and his family.

Thus the real question facing Nawaz today is this: whether it is more important to prioritise the future of PMLN’s dynasty politics or the democratic long-term health of this country? For as Pakistan enters into the last pre-election furlong — the country remains occupied with this ongoing battle of wills. Indeed, Nawaz has in the interim done a fantastic job of using his ‘constitutional’ disqualification as a rallying cry as his party continues to hit the campaign trail.

This is not to say that some of his charges levelled against the SC are without merit. Indeed, he is right when he complains that had certain sections of the judiciary truly treated the Constitution as a sacred document — then democracy would not have been interrupted time and again. But what reduces such observations to mere point scoring is the fact that he moved to have Gen (rtd) Pervez Musharraf for treason on the grounds of imposing emergency and not for the original sin of overthrowing his own democratically elected government. Though some still say that question marks remain over the then Nawaz regime’s legitimate passage to power.  *

Published in Daily Times, February 22^nd 2018.