The Sharif family had seemingly contested the Panama case in the Supreme Court as well as at the interrogation sessions by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) rather non-seriously. For the public consumption it tried, during this phase, to build a narrative blaming some face-less anti-democratic elements of conspiring to oust Nawaz from power and cause serious damage to the on-going democratic process in the country.
A charitable explanation why the former Prime Minister and his family had adopted this line of action could be that having come to the conclusion that no matter how they argued the case in the Supreme Court the anti-democratic elements would not let them off the hook come what may, it was decided to focus on winning the sympathy of the public at large using victimhood rather than trying to convince the judges of their innocence.
But one cannot also rule out the possibility that Nawaz and his immediate family did not have an iota of evidence to prove their innocence in the courts and knowing that they were guilty as charged came up with a fairy tale narrative to deliberately confuse the issue and in the process politicized an open and shut case of blatant corruption.
Nawaz Sharif failed to understand that a strong leader is not the one who ruled like a dictator — but the one who governed drawing his strength from the House that had voted him to lead it
Nawaz has not so far divulged the identity of the anti-democratic elements that he believes were behind the so-called conspiracy hatched against him but he has been trying hard enough using innuendoes, insinuations and allusions to create and reinforce the perception that it were the Army hand-in-gloves with the Superior Judiciary colluding to oust him from PM’s office.
Of course, one cannot out rightly reject this narrative because of our past experiences when both the Army and the superior judiciary had joined hands to show the door to elected governments on concocted charges of corruption and bad governance. The Army had staged four brazen military coups in the past and the Superior Judiciary had not only upheld these take-overs as legitimate actions on the basis of the so-called doctrine of necessity but also had approved three more ousters of elected governments under the now defunct law of 58 (2) b.
And in the present instance the partisan coverage of the case and JIT proceedings by a section of seemingly wired media clearly hostile to Sharif family plus the recently released picture of COAS General Bajwa calling on Prime Minister Shahid Khakhan Abbasi tell a tale old enough not to ring familiar alarm bells.
Still it is almost impossible to believe that the charges of corruption levelled against the Sharif family were cooked up. Moreover it is also hard to buy their argument that Nawaz was ousted to thwart the on-going democratic process in the country as the elected governments at the centre as well as in the provinces have remained unaffected by the ouster of Nawaz from PM’s office and likewise the elected Parliament continues to function without any let or hindrance.
Since all the alleged cases of corruption against the family have been forwarded to the NAB for prosecution to be completed by March next year under the supervision of the a Supreme Court Judge one would not like to discuss the merits and demerits of these cases at this juncture. But here too the ousted family has created a large shadow of doubt about the outcome of these references on the grounds that the supervision by a SC judge and the SC imposed time limit on completion of the prosecution amounted to influencing the NAB judges and its prosecutors.
The first time he was ousted in April 1993 Nawaz was saved by the Supreme Court, the next time when he was sent home by the then COAS General Musharraf in October 1999 he was saved by the Saudis. This time it is the Supreme Court itself which has sent him packing and Saudis or for that matter any other foreign government does not seem to be interested in Nawaz’s fate.Therefore, this time he seems to be banking on his home province Punjab to save him from being consigned to political oblivion.
On the face of it Nawaz Sharif’s immediate mission seems to be to mobilize a demoralized PMLN which has received a serious political dent following his ouster and at the same time he needs to ensure that no one jumps the ship at this critical juncture in the life of the party. Simultaneously he perhaps wants to ensure that the NA 120, the seat that fell vacant after his disqualification on which elections are due in early September, is not lost to any other Party especially to the PTI. And he also seems gearing up to launch his Party’s election campaign as well for the 2018 contest which is only 10 months away. This multiple mission perhaps is what has prompted him to use the GT road, the strongest constituency of the PMLN, to return home leading a political rally.
The move also seems to be a show of defiance and an attempt to discredit the Supreme Court verdict. In effect he seems also to be daring the Army to ‘show its hand’ if at all it has decided to minus him from politics. This is a high risk game and could prove to be counterproductive. And another risk that he is taking is banking on a Party not accustomed to organizing such long drawn rallies. What if the welcoming crowd got embarrassingly thin by the time he reaches Lahore?
One feels sad to see one more elected PM sent home before completing his constitutional tenure. And one feels even sadder to see that an elected PM has been sent home by a Supreme Court verdict rather than by a vote of no- confidence which is the method laid down in the Constitution for removing an elected leader of the House.
But the saddest part of the story is the way Nawaz damaged the democratic norms with complete impunity during the four years of his truncated tenure. He hardly attended Parliament sessions, only rarely convened parliamentary party meetings and held cabinet meetings only occasionally. While making important appointments he looked for loyalists rather than assigning the right person for the right job. He ruled like a civilian dictator rather than governing the country strictly in accordance with the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution. He failed to understand that a strong leader is not the one who ruled like a dictator but the one who governed drawing his strength from the House that had voted him to lead it.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad. He served as the Executive Editor of Express Tribune until 2014
Published in Daily Times, August 11th 2017.