Daily Times

The Supreme Court’s ruling to disqualify former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from his party’s presidency has come as no surprise.

According to the lordships, any person who is disqualified under Article 62 and Article 63 of the Constitution, will be considered ineligible to head a political party as well.

Yours truly is not a legal eagle, so he will not indulge into third rate commentary on the known reasons of this judgement. As an ordinary student of politics, I will stay focused on its political implications. The opponents are rejoicing and overjoyed as they have knocked their arch nemesis out of the playing field. These are short sighted political minions, who are overlooking a simple fact, any curtailment of civilian authority is going to impact them as well, sooner or later.

In this Thursday, June 15, 2017, photo, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speaks to reporters outside the premises of the Joint Investigation Team, in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan’s Supreme Court in a unanimous decision has asked the country’s anti-corruption body to file corruption charges against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his two sons and daughter for concealing their assets. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

There is an extraordinary assumption that worst is over for the PML-N. There will be smooth sail from here on and all will be well. Worst comes to worst, the former PM will be awarded sentence along with his daughter for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references and it will be a quite a sight. Thinking from a purely political point of view, the Nooners think that victimhood will give them an edge in the upcoming polls. The Nawaz constituency has heard his message loud and clear and will respond with their votes. The assumption further stretches with a possibility of two third majority of PML-N in both houses. One must say quite an optimistic and rosy scenario.

If Nawaz, his daughter and son in law are sentenced before election, chances are that mammoth rallies that Mr. Sharif along with his fiery daughter could pull, will be adversely impacted. The crowd pullers will be gone and the younger brother is not the one with similar charisma and a great mass appeal. Even if he puts on a show for the crowd, he will not be able to fill the shoes of the elder brother. No matter how many couplets of Jalib he may come up with laced with high pitch drama that he is famous for.

The opponents are rejoicing and overjoyed as they have knocked their arch nemesis out of the playing field. These are short sighted political minions, who are overlooking the simple fact that any curtailment of civilian authority is going to impact them as well, sooner or later

Next, the assumption of two third majority in both houses is an overly optimistic stretch. The incumbency factor will kick in and despite the projects that Chief Servant of the Punjab endlessly brags about, he will still have to face the criticism of provincial projects underway and National Accountability Bureau references against him as well.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has added a new wrinkle, considering the recent verdict, which requires the person authorized by former party President, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, to now contest the Senate Elections as independent candidates.

The what if wild card which most TV pundits have overlooked is the possibility where even Shahbaz Sharif is unable to contest. In that scenario, it would be quite an uphill task for the party to hold itself in the present shape. If the buzz on social media should be given any credence, then may be something unpleasant is being cooked for the Chief Servant as well. In that case it would be a major blow to the succession plans of the Nooners. The critics are saying in that scenario the party may split into factions and blocks.

Mr Khan of Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI), just last week had admitted that Supreme Court (SC) judgment of July 2017 against Mr. Sharif was “weak.” This was quite a marvelous admission from the gentleman, who took credit for bringing a ‘corrupt’ politician to task, for the “first time”, in the history of our country, all along. This recent verdict from the SC has Mr. Khan firing on all cylinders yet again, informing that Mr. Sharif will be sentenced in a few weeks.

Mr Zardari led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has turned all their canons towards the former PM and going for his head with total vengeance. Mr Zardari has his reasons too for all the snubs he endured from the former PM, while he was in the office. PPP goes all the way back to his Zia days and end up with the verdict of ‘well he deserves it.’

Unfortunately, politics is an extremely ruthless craft. When you are down, people will be out like vultures to pull the last piece of flesh off your body. As mentioned earlier, it is a hallmark trait of our politicos for being short sighted and very callous. They rarely put themselves in that position and only view their opponent as their adversary.

Folks who have tolerated this scribe for so many years will at least vouch for this much. From my early days, have been a staunch critic of Nawaz. But it would be dishonest to state here for record, that whatever wrong he has done for decades in this political system has been equalized with his exemplary defiance this time around. At least he stands on the right side of history.

The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. TW @dasghar

Published in Daily Times, February  27^th 2018.