The return of Nawaz Sharif - Imran Khan should tell the truth

 

The Imran Khan government is showing the level of seriousness to bring back Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan from the UK as it was earlier determined to send the convicted PML-N leader abroad just a year ago on medical grounds.

The matter was discussed in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan wants to use every possible forum to repatriate his chief rival to Pakistan. The issue attracted Imran Khan’s attention when a picture went viral online where Nawaz Sharif is seen walking worriless on a London street with his son, Hassn Nawaz, also a wanted person in Pakistani courts.  Moreover, federal minister Fawad Chaudhry has stated on the record several times that the release of Nawaz Sharif and later his departure to the UK has damaged Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s narrative on strict accountability.

In the fresh cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Imran Khan has discussed the ordeal of bringing Nawaz Sharif back to Pakistan and in this regard, he asked his Adviser on Accountability Shahzad Akbar and Law Minister Farogh Naseem to use every possible forum and option to meet the task.

Why is this sudden U-turn in Mr Khan’s views as earlier he was willing to allow Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari to get medical treatment and now he wants to see Nawaz Sharif in jail. It is, however, strange to see that certain cabinet members asked the prime minister to allow Mr Sharif to stay in the UK for his medical treatment as that would also be good for politics.

This point can be debated.

Several people may agree with this point, and several others may just laugh.

The fact, however, either side may not differ is Nawaz Sharif needs to justify his stay in London and he needs to prove his illness case. Month after month, the PML-N has been submitting medical reports which lack any medical substance. Earlier in February last, the Punjab government showed its dissatisfaction with the reports presented by the party and subsequently, the provincial cabinet did not extend the bail granted on medical grounds to the former prime minister.

This is the time Nawaz Sharif returned to Lahore immediately from London. His initial days will be in Kot Lakhpat jail. He has a good team of lawyers.

Civil society loves him publicly, though what it says about the former prime minister in private conversations is another debate.

The media love him too. What he did to the media and the people through PEMRA, PECA and other laws is another debate.

The law loves him.

History will dub it nothing short of a miracle that a convicted person, serving jail terms in Al-Azizia mill case, was released on bail for eight weeks by the Islamabad High Court on October 29, 2019 for treatment abroad. Later, bail was extended for a further eight weeks. Again, bail was to be automatically extended, therefore it was extended for 16 weeks, says Law Minister Raja Basharat.

These weeks have passed weeks, weeks ago but Mr Sharif is roaming on London streets.

The government should go to courts and plead the case.

Before that it should go to the public and explain the reasons for being too lenient towards Nawaz Sharif.

Shahzad Akbar has already spoken the fact.

That it was the agriculture department that lent NRO to the Sharif family.

History will judge them differently if Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif and the mehkma ziraat also speak up.  

 

 

The return of political rallies

It is heartening to see back to back public rallies being held across Pakistan by major political parties where vociferous speakers address a charged crowd amid deafening chants of slogans. Yes, the election time is around the corner. 

The return of public rallies in our cities is a good sign. 

On the rallies front, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is ahead of its opponents. 

The party convenes a public meeting anywhere in Pakistan at will; it has demonstrated its power to pull crowds. 

In recent weeks, the PTI has successfully held parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and South Punjab. 

The Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) has competed against the PTI by pitching its young leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in public rallies. The scion of Bhutto-Zardari family has shown his power to attract people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh. 

The ruling Pakistan Muslim-N (PML-N) was missing from the scene because of its leaders’ engagements in London where Kalsoom Nawaz is under treatment and in Pakistani courts, where the whole Nawaz Sharif family faces a number of cases. The party has also made a plan to make its comeback to the public through a public rally in its stronghold Abbottabad on November 12. 

In Karachi, Farooq Sattar-led Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM), and its rival, Pak Sarzameen Party, and other Sindhi nationalist parties make their presence felt with their occasional rallies and marches. 

Old time Jamaat-i-Islami is always holding gatherings here and there.

The comeback of political rallies signifies the security situation of the country. The colour of rallies was missing from the last 2013 general elections. Only right-wing parties had the freedom to hold rallies, whereas the leadership of the PPP, Awami National Party, MQM had literally been forced to hole up in bunkers for safety. Several leaders of these parties fell prey to suicide bombing and targeted attacks by militants. Even the parties allowed to hold rallies had to make extra security arrangements. 

A rally without any eventuality used to be considered an achievement.

As leaders are back to public address system and rostrum, one thing noticeable, however, is the lack of substance from leaders’ speeches. 

A cursory examination of Imran Khan’s speeches shows that he has lost ideas to share with the public. He says to a rally whatever he has been saying for years: the corruption of previous governments. 

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari finds comfort in repeating his family’s and party’s sacrifices for democracy. 

It is not difficult to predict what Nawaz Sharif will say in his address to the Abbottabad rally: “We've built motorways; we will build more motorways”. Cheers!

In healthy, established democratic societies, public rallies are the venue for parties to announce their agenda, manifesto and to win public support for their electoral programmes. Occasionally, as it is fair in politics, parties brag about their past achievements and pulverize their opponents, but more focus is (or should be) on their future agenda.

It is high time that the opportunities like public rallies are not wasted in attacking opponents and repeating the political rhetoric. 

The rally audience at large deserves a batter content from their leaders. The rallies should be used to announce parties’ manifestoes and educate the participants about the importance of the policies. When the public elects a party on the basis of its manifesto, a true democracy will emerge.

And this is the only way to defeat political turmoil, we are always into. 

Shakespearean tragedy in the house of Sharifs

Nawaz Sharif or Shahbaz Sharif? 

Maryam Nawaz or Hamza Shahbaz? 

The in-house fighting for the throne of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) is not a secret anymore. Calls to hand over the reins of the ruling party to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif are growing within the party. 

First, it was PML-N MNA Sultan Mahmood Hinjra, of Kot Addu, who while addressing a public rally in the city, all in the presence of Shahbaz Sharif, demanded that Nawaz Sharif step down from the party office and pass on the throne to his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif. When he finished the speech, Shahbaz Sharif showed his annoyance to him at the stage. Mr Hinjra maintains that whatever he had spoken up was planned and Shahbaz Sharif knew very well of his speech. 

Later on, Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Pirzada used a better platform – the Islamabad National Press Club – and demanded the change of guards in the top office of the party. His words attracted the attention of the mainstream media. Soon, a meeting of MPAs in Lahore became the talk of the town, where, according to of one of the participants, provincial minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, the matter of the party leadership was discussed.

Insiders say that the two brothers have the difference of opinion on how to cope with the post-Panama case verdict situation. 

Nawaz Sharif and his children have been indicted in graft cases and face an uncertain future, whereas Shahbaz Sharif and his family are relatively in calmer waters at the moment, for there is no case going on against them. Wounded Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz have indicated, though not so clearly, taken up a confrontation with the state institutions, Supreme Court, 

and the army, to be precise. 

Shahbaz Sharif, along with former federal minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, supports reconciliatory approach.

Reconciliation or not, Shahbaz Sharif also feels deceived as he was first tipped for the prime minister office after the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif but only to be dropped within days. Later, he was also not considered for the PML-N top office. Over the time, Maryam Nawaz has made her entry into active politics and now she is considered the potential successor of Nawaz Sharif. Hamza Sharif has rebelled and aired his concerns about the rise of Maryam Nawaz.

The Shakespearean style in-house fighting poses questions for the Sharif family and the PML-N.

First, the Sharif family should ask themselves: Is it the war between Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif or Hamza Shahbaz and Maryam Nawaz? Once they find the bone of contention, the family can sit and talk out the terms to reach a settlement.

Second, PML-N leaders should ask themselves and each other: how to keep the party intact in case the House of Sharif breaks into factions, as is the history of every Muslim League.

Only, the time will decide the fate of the party, which represents Pakistan’s urban middle class. Faced with graft cases, and in-house fighting, the party seems to have a bleak future. The disintegration of an established political party is always a great loss to democracy. In the case of the PML-N, a party without any political ideology, its breakup may not be an immediate loss to the political foundations of the country. 

We should, however, be ready for the chaos that may ensue in central and north Punjab.