Rajan Gandhi
Like Lalu Parsad in India , corruption has taken its toll in Pakistan as well. Vicious political circle for Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif is complete. In any vibrant democracy, any prime minster facing graft charges, a determined opposition and media criticism would have chosen to dissolve the parliament and opt for an election, the easiest way to gamble and seek the “verdict of the people”. But as usual Pakistan is an exception as time and again it has been proven that its political institutions are quite weak and the all-powerful Pakistan army uses remote control to stir trouble for any elected government the moment it feels endangered by civilian government and this has happened once more with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after strictures were passed against him and his family members by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) appointed by the Supreme Court. ‘Kangaroo’ courts have delivered one more verdict favoring Pakistan army.
Sharif is viewed as a dove on relations with India as time and again he had tried to forge friendly ties with India but was cheated by its own army , firstly during Vajpayee era when Kargil was unleashed or more recently during Modi’s tenure when Pathankot air base attack was launched. All the friendly gestures by him are neither endorsed by the army nor by religious fanatics as they find their constituency eroded if at all Pakistan-India relations improve or be normalized at some time in the near future. Both military and fanatics would be rendered jobless if such an eventuality ensues. The cat has been unleashed among pigeons now. Under General Raheel Sharif, army had rescued Sharif and his government from the siege that was laid by opposition leader Imran Khan and Canadian-Pakistani cleric Maulana Qadri. But the Pakistani military establishment is reluctant to do so under General Qamar Bajwa as Nawaz Sharif refused to oblige army by not giving extension to either Gen Parvez Kayani or to Gen Raheel Sharif . Nawaz Sharif got it totally wrong and consequently he lost his prime minister ship. It was clear that the army will never like Sharif and his party to secure a consecutive second term; in fact no party of rogue country Pakistan has received a second term. The very fact that only the PPP was able to complete five years in office during 2008-2013, but that too under a weak president Asif Zardari with three different prime ministers speaks about the democratic setup of Pakistan. Situation seems like Pakistan is still ruled by Mughal emperors who now and then face revolts and are dethroned by some other perspective contender.
Trouble for Nawaz Sharif started on 5 April 2016 when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism published the Panama Papers, exposing tax evasion by the world’s elite through off-shore accounts and shell companies. The documents included names of Sharif’s family. On 6th April Sharif denied all these allegations but set up a judicial committee to investigate the allegations, which was rejected by the opposition parties and on 1st November 2016, the Supreme Court decided to pursue a case related to Nawaz Sharif. Rest is history as the JIT constituted by court virtually charge sheeted business dealings of Sharif family members – cases pertaining to daughter Maryam and sons Hussain and Hassan were referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for further investigations. A serious setback to Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif followed with the disclosure that his daughter and putative heir apparent, Maryam Sharif, had concealed ownership of the family’s offshore assets and companies. A Joint Investigation Team in fact accused Maryam of forgery. The JIT had charged the ruling family with perjury, having disproportionate income and living beyond their known sources of income. It said that Sharif failed to satisfactorily answer most of the questions put to him during his appearance before investigators on June 15. They revealed that major part of Nawaz Sharif’s statement was based on hearsay as he had remained non-committal, speculative and at times non-cooperative while recording his statement. The report further said Sharif tried to “parry most of the questions” by giving indefinite answers or by stating that “he does not remember, ostensibly to conceal facts”. The important point is that politicians everywhere make money by grabbing the opportunity that office and subsequent power offers them and Sharifs, a family of businessmen and industrialists, are unlikely to be exceptions, since business would come naturally to them whether in or out of power. They left some dirty trail and indulged in concealing or fudging incriminatory evidence, which has surfaced now. But Nawaz- the first elected leader in Pakistan to appear before JIT reiterated that his family had been in business and industry for three generations and what the JIT was probing were allegations of graft against the family not the misuse of government funds.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after a corruption investigation into his family’s finances, plunging the South Asian country into political turmoil ahead of a national election next year. Right now, India and Pakistan barely have any official interactions and the walk-by greeting between PM Narendra Modi and Sharif in Astana epitomized the state of ties, which does not go beyond pleasantries and as such the loss of Sharif is unlikely to strike a blow at bilateral ties but a change of regime at this time means to deal with new players in Islamabad, too new to matter, leaving the job of governance and foreign policy to the army brass in Rawalpindi. This most obvious is a coup-like situation, bringing the army back on the frontline of governance by judiciary.
For India , area of concern is that Pakistan-based terror groups have shown that they can penetrate and strike anywhere in Jammu and Kashmir easily, the Amaranth attack is a testimony to that. So the easiest way forward for Pakistan army is to ratchet up violence in the Kashmir Valley and use this pretext to fend off international pressure to restore a civilian government. Government of India has to be extra vigilant for any possible mischief and this is the most appropriate time to further tighten the noose around Hurriyat as right now their masters in Pakistan are busy in musical chair event of Pakistan politics and at this juncture will not be in position to concentrate on Hurriyat. India shall now follow the time tested principle of strike when the iron is hot to get most conducive and favorable results in Kashmir. For Hurriyat its “Woh kya hamari madad karaengae jinkae khud kae takhto taj lut gayae.”
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel