The much awaited JIT report is out and on the face of it, its findings appear too devastating for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his close family.
As expected, PTI chief Imran Khan has welcomed the report and demanded that the Prime Minister should immediately step down.
The ruling PMLN has rejected the report, calling it a fairytale, an ‘Imran-nama’ and expressed its determination to contest the report in the Supreme Court which would resume hearing the case next Monday.
The situation demands that the PM should step down – not on the PTI demand but in view of the fact that it would appear too untenable for a sitting chief executive of a country of about 200 million people, surrounded by a multitude of life and death problems, to be seen trying to save himself of serious allegations of corruption in a high profile court case.
Moreover, there is this possibility that a PM with divided attention would find it increasingly difficultwith any degree of equanimityto take important decisions having national and international implications. In any case, the government would still remain in PML-N hands even after PM’s resignation pending a final decision by the Supreme Court. To be sure, the JIT report does not say that the London flats were bought with laundered money nor does it allege that it was tainted money made from tax evasion, kick- backs, or commissions received by PM Nawaz Sharif. His two sons are non-resident Pakistanis, and Saudi Arabia and the UK – in whose jurisdiction the two operate their businesses- do not seem to have problems with those ‘living beyond their known means’.
So, what exactly does the report mean by ‘known means’? It is possible that the Supreme Court would allow the first family to refute the incriminating evidence against it in the JIT report. On the other hand, the petitioners including Imran Khan would also be allowed by the SC to further prosecute its case. Nonetheless, one finds it almost impossible to agree with the PML-N that the entire case is a part of a diabolic conspiracy to malign and oust the government. Of the two institutions that could be behind such a conspiracy (going by their past records) the Army’s hands seem full at the moment as it’s engaged on international borders as well as within the country – in a four-front engagement. And, finally, why would the Supreme Court conspire to disturb a system that has enabled it to function independently for the first time in the country’s history?
Published in Daily Times, July 11th , 2017.