Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The discontentment brewing at the Raiwind palace has pushed beleaguered Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif into a whirlpool of distress. The prime minister and his associates are now in search of a saviour to stem the storm roaring from all four sides.

Prime Minister Sharif and his family members are now sure that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his family members have distanced themselves from them in the wake of the Panama leaks.

It is a cause of perpetual embarrassment for the prime minister that scores of petitions are pouring in all four high courts and the Supreme Court against the offshore companies allegedly owned by his family members. If the court summons the prime minister and his sons in connection with money laundering cases and offshore companies, Sharif and his coteries would have no political workers this time to attack the Supreme Court.

The third major embarrassment for the prime minister and his cabinet members is that no credible judge is ready to head the commission that would look into the Panama Papers’ reports about Sharif family’s offshore companies. If the prime minister fails to constitute the inquiry commission within 15 days, the matter would go to the Supreme Court under the constitution and the commission constituted by the apex court would not accept any pressure from the government.

Talking to Daily Times, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, a former senator and member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said the federal government would have to request the Supreme Court chief justice to appoint a serving judge to head the commission if no judge agrees to head the commission on government’s request. This is the demand of the opposition too. Therefore, the prime minister should request the chief justice to nominate a serving judge of the Supreme Court as head of the inquiry commission, he said.

Reliable people in the power circles said the government was in trouble, but it was trying to find a way out of this crisis. Sources told Daily Times that another cause of embarrassment for the government was the threat issued by Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), that he would lay a siege to the Raiwind palace of the prime minister. Dr Tahirul Qadri, chief of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), has said that he would move the court to make the government take action on a report on the Model Town incident in which at least 14 people of Qadri’s party were shot dead by the police. The government understands it well that if workers of Khan and Qadri march on Raiwind, Tehmina Durrani, wife of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, will set up water points for them.

The fifth cause of worry for the rulers is implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) in Punjab. Some provincial ministers are likely to be arrested in Punjab within a few days. These arrests will serve as the last nail in government’s coffin.

The sixth cause of concern for the government is Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. Some people could file pleas in courts under these articles with reference to prime minister’s address to the nation in the wake of Panama leaks.

The federal government has been warned through intelligence reports that political parties are in a position to take advantage of Panama leaks. The federal government has conveyed to its members of parliament and leaders at the district level that political parties are hatching conspiracies against it. On the other hand, federal and provincial leaders of the PML-N are finding themselves helpless against the media, which is exposing the truth about the Panama leaks.