Daily Times

‘It is a joke’ was the verdict passed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) appointed by the Supreme Court when he was in London for his Eid holidays. Ever since then “the joke” has become a serious threat tightening its dragnet around the neck of the first family.

Being father-in-law of Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, four time federal minister of the three times Prime Minister — Finance Minister Ishaq Dar — after his JIT — looked like a cat on a hot tin roof. His volcanic outburst against the probe, his wailing like a fresh widow or a tiny tot snatched of his favourite toy — seemed to be too theatrical.

It has been more than one year that Panama drama is on. It is now supposed to be in final stages. And surely it is — when one sees volley after volley being fired by the media musketeers of the Prime Minister’s house.  It is to be seen how much damage the royal fusiliers would have done to the JIT and the Supreme Court by their bombardment of third rate allegations of partisanship and bias. There are no answers given of course to the tempering of various records by their henchmen holding key positions in every place of importance to weigh-lay the course of justice.

For many months the Panama leaks proved an exercise in futility. Yet now the JIT is drawing to a close — it suddenly seems to be well-poised to knock down the pillars of corruption in the country

The Panama leaks lifted the lid on financial purity, exposing many world leaders to public wrath. For many it proved to be a swan song. When Pakistan figured in it, it appeared more of a game changer as it named Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family as money launderers. And when the five judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by the second most senior judge Mr Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa started the proceedings — each day of hearing seemed to be taking the Prime Minister and his family nearer to a most ignoble denouncement. And when one saw a profusely sweating finance minister summoned by the JIT following its interrogation of him, one just looked up to the sky to see the Divine Judge smiling.

In Dar sahib’s writhing pain and loud protestations one could see how badly hurt one feels when one’s female members are summoned for interrogation to pin charges of money laundering on the patriarch of the family. More painful were similar lamentations of Sheila Raza, deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly who in a TV programme genuinely burst out reminding the howling PML-N’s media mongers of the torture Pakistan’s only leader of international stature, twice elected prime minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was subjected to by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s hatchet man, probably descendent of Gestapo’s worst executioner — Senator Saifur Rehman. His blue-eyed super-cop Rana Maqbool almost killed Asif Ali Zardari in CIA custody. I too was a victim of his atrocities when his loyal prosecutors tried their dirty best to coax me to commit perjury against Mohtarma and Asif Zardari. It was Allah’s mercy that they could not break me but they rendered my health adversely affected for all times.

Sources that dealt with Dar Sahib reveal that he was treated with kid gloves under General Pervez Musharraf when he volunteered to offer a 45-page long confessional statement accepting all his wheeling-dealings for his Prime Minister as his financial and family confidante including his painstaking efforts for money laundering for him. Not only that, by virtue of his singing against Mian sahib, Dar sahib was looking forward to being appointed as Finance Minister by GPM.

Last but not the least, take Dr Asim Hussain’s case. He was subjected to worst sort of humiliation and piled up with plethora of charges just to get him to do Dar act against AAZ. He genuinely needs medical treatment but his name remains stuck in ECL whereas the General who committed an act of treason, was being prosecuted for murder of Benazir Bhutto and Sardar Akbar Bugti was allowed to leave the country for ‘treatment of his back’ to enable him to take to dancing floor.

Perhaps in May 2016 President Syed Mamnoon Hussain commenting on the Panamian expose of the corrupt and powerful made very pertinent and prophetic observation. When read within the aura of uncertainties currently holding the country as hostage, President Mamnoon described Panama leaks as “national disaster”. He said that nations involved in corruption do not progress — “The Panama Gate is a natural trap. The bigger the thief is, the more luxuriant his life is. The corruption has adversely affected every institution of the country and now there is a need to launch collective efforts to eliminate this menace.”

The President who rarely speaks made a poignant observation vis-à-vis Panama leaks that now seems to be pregnant with seeds of far-reaching consequences in the near future. For many months, the Panama leaks proved an exercise in futility. Yet now the JIT is drawing to a close — it suddenly seems to be well poised to knock down the pillars of corruption in the country.

There’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip as the phrase goes. There have been so far accusations and counter-accusations by spin hyenas on both sides 24/7. Notwithstanding all that, the indictment of the Prime Minister by two senior most judges of the Supreme Court describing the PM as Godfather running a Sicilian mafia government and the three judges opting for a JIT to track down the money trail — should be enough for any self-respecting person to call it a day. In Japan if its Prime Minister was found guilty of corruption, he would have taken recourse to committing seppuku out of disgrace.

The writer is former High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK and a veteran journalist

Published in Daily Times, July 5^th  , 2017.