- Syeda Mazhar
The political fate of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been hanging in the balance since April 20 this year when two senior judges of the Supreme Court disqualified him while three other preferred to wait for more evidence to emerge through Joint Investigation Team comprising officials from country’s top investigating bodies, the State bank and more importantly military-run secret services— the ISI and MI.
The Sharif family; Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law MNA Capt (retd) Safdar were indicted in the Avenfield properties case. Prior to this Nawaz Sharif had resigned because he was deemed unfit for the office as he was dishonest to the Parliament and has been systematically controlling the state’s institutions.
Moreover, in the Panama Leaks the name of three of his six children, Maryam Nawaz, Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz were determined to have purchased properties in London, using offshore holdings. However, in accordance with Pakistan’s law, the entire burden of proof has virtually fallen upon Nawaz Sharif being an elected prime minister no less than three times, given the fact that his children were dependent on him when expensive properties were purchased in London through two Panama-based off-shore companies Nielsen and Nescoll between 1993 and 1995.
The pattern of financial crimes highlights the decades-long old modus operandi of the top ruling class who has allegedly, minted money in the name of mega-development projects. Their agents extensively purchase dollars from the open market and smuggle them out of the country to set up secret offshore companies, thus building a business empire abroad. The part of the smuggled currency is then legalized by channeling it back to Pakistan through the banking system in order to run their political campaigns and maintain a luxurious lifestyle.
The Pakistani Supreme Court started its investigation after the Panama Papers came out in April 2016 and Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, with Imran Khan as its leader, consistently put forward fierce criticism against the Prime Minister for his involvement in the corruption cases. The PTI Chairman claimed that Sharif family is involved in money laundering worth Rs 1.14 billion. “The wealth of Sharif family has increased immensely after 1992,” said Khan. He further claimed that Metal Hill sent Rs 1.14 to Nawaz Sharif out of which he sent Rs 800 million to his daughter Maryam Nawaz. ‘While Rs 240 million was laundered through Sharif family’s employees and Punjab police,” Khan alleged.
Three out of five judges of the Supreme Court considered the information gathered against Sharif as insufficient and, therefore, their decision was in favor of Sharif. However, in the meanwhile, they formed another group of six people for further investigations about the issue, and after their assessments, the Supreme Court said the ECP should de-seat the PM for not disclosing his role in the Dubai-based Capital FZE company in his nomination papers, all the five judges of the Supreme Court said that the Pakistani Prime Minister was not “honest” and, hence, he was ousted from his position.
Sharif’s dismissal will and has, first of all, affected Pakistan’s Muslim League Party and sequentially Pakistan’s internal politics. If convicted, the accused may face up to 14 years imprisonment and lifelong disqualification from holding public office including the freezing of bank accounts and assets. Muslim League has been divided since the revelations of Panama Papers. Which is why, the Pakistani Minister of Interior Chaudhary Nisar, also a member of Muslim league, criticized some of the ministers for creating distance between him and Nawaz Sharif and, thus, were gradually marginalizing him. Similarly, the leaks affected Maryam Nawaz as another task of the investigating committee was to verify parts of photocopies of Panama papers which provided insight on how Maryam Nawaz was the beneficial owner of off-shore business companies. This, probably, is an important clue which if verified through more investigations could put an end to her ambitions to replace her father after next general elections.
On the other hand, whether how much the dismissed Nawaz Sharif will be able to keep Muslim League strong is a question that only time can respond, as Muslim League-N has been a dominant political party in Pakistan’s politics. But the ouster of a Prime Minister who would in the past four years criticize the military over a series of issues will strengthen military’s stance and control in the internal politics. Moreover, Muslim League’s success in 2018 Parliamentary elections will also be under question and most of the people, especially in the urban cities, will vote the other parties particularly Tehreek-e-Insaaf. The recent Senate elections showed how the Muslim League- N despite having a vast majority in the Parliament failed in securing the seat for the Chairperson of the Senate. The apparent intense lobbying against Nawaz Sharif’s party and the attempt to over through their position in the Parliament was supplemented by their own party members voting against them. The third tenure of Sharif government came to a rough end and how long this low persists for the family, time will tell.
