Daily Times

Avenfields reference dominated the social media scene in the country on Friday.

Twitter users cracked jokes on the alleged pulling of accountability court’s strings by the powers-that-be as the delay in the announcement of the verdict continued past the Friday prayer break. After the verdict was announced, some refered to the measured approach of the younger Sharif as a second disaster for the N-League in the day, and many others referred to the verdict as an instance of selective accountability, referrring to countless other cases either pending hearings or dispossed of by the accountability watchdog. The PTI supporters, however, were confident that corruption in the country had been taken care of once and for all with the verdict.

All this activity happened under the hashtags of #AvenfieldReference and #AvenfieldVerdict.

Before the verdict was announced, journalist Syed Talat Hussain (@TalatHussain12) posted “#AvenfieldCase. Judgement day. What will Shehbaz as party head do if NS gets 10 years, Mariam 7? Will he sing sad songs, shed twitter tears? Will he protest? What type of protest, if any? SS more than NS culd face moment of truth today.”

Afterwards, he postd , “Nawaz Sharif suffers two setsbacks. One, NAB conviction. Two, Shehbaz Sharif press conference. Its hard to tell which one is more damaging.”

In her much anticipated response, Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) posted, “The punishment I have received isnt too big to stand up to the powers-that-be who have had a 70-year-long foothold in the country. Today, I feel motivated to resume my fight against injustice and violence orchestrated by these forces.”

As expected, many users made hostile comments on the thread, maintaining that corruption in Pakistan had finally come to an end. Refering to the verdict as a victory, PTI supporters attributed it to the party chairman Imran Khan’s politics. Some verified journalists took a rather hard-lined stance on the matter. TV anchor and columnist Moeed Pirzada (@MoeedNj) proved to be one of them when he posted, “Congratulations! to all those men & women in politics, media, judiciary & middle classes who relentlessly struggled against abuse of high public office; thanks to their efforts today Pakistan is at the edge of entering into a modern meaningful democracy, May God Help us all, Amen!”

Meanwhile, notable and common twitter users alike highlighted the issue of selective accountability. Journalist Mohammad Taqi (@mazdaki) posted a series of tweets, one of which claimed, “the only way for #NawazSharif to throw a spanner in the army’s works is to return immediately; this is not about accountability but routing even vestiges of a challenger to army’s control over #Pakistan”.

Awami Workers Party’s (AWP) deputy general secretary Ismat Shahjehan stated, (@ismatshahjehan), “We are all for accountability but this for sure is pre-poll rigging. Widespread corruption is a systemic issue, which can never be addressed through selective accountability. The entire state apparatus needs to be democratized. #NawazSharif #MaryamNawaz #AvenfieldReference.”

Feminist and political scientist, Shama Junejo (@ShamaJunejo) said,”#AvenFieldReferance #AvenFieldVerdict. Nawaz Sharif: 10 years £8m fine, Maryam Nawaz: 7 years,£2m fine plus 1 more year, Captain Safdar: 1 year. How strange that since yesterday the same conviction was viral on WhatsApp.”

Awami National Party central vice president Bushra Gohar referred to the scenario as a “scripted soap opera” in one of her tweets. She tweeted(@BushraGohar), “Moral of the judgement: Never file a case against a military dictator under #Article6. Never exercise executive mandate to review foreign & defence policies. Just be content to implement orders as received…Chalo jee, what is the next episode of the scripted soap opera?”

Fasi Zaka added a humorous element to the subject of pre-poll rigging when he stated, ” Potential Judgement Opening Lines: “Hosta La Vista Baby” (T2, 1991),”Here’s looking at you, kid” (Casablanca, 1942), “If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it.” (Taken, 2008), “They call it a Royale with cheese.” (Pulp Fiction, 1994)” In a second tweet, he remarked, “it shouldn’t take this long for the judgement to reach the judge” and followed it by saying, “I wonder if it’s because they are having difficulty finding the right Wikipedia references.”

Published in Daily Times, July 7^th 2018.