How does a thief, a plunderer, a kleptocrat and an avowed practitioner of corruption defend himself when caught and interrogated?
Mian Nawaz Sharif is a classical case in this respect. All that he was required to do to earn an exoneration was to produce a single document that would prove that the London properties owned by his family were bought with money that was legitimate and was transferred to London in a legitimate manner. What however he has chosen to build his defense upon, is a narrative that the forces that killed Liaqat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, that hanged Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto the founder of the PPP and an elected Prime Minister, and that overthrew him (i.e MNS) in 1999 on a concocted charge of hijacking, were responsible not only for his ouster from power but also for all those cases authored by the NAB against him.
Mian Nawaz Sharif’s statement on May 23, 2018 was so extensively built on cooked-up lies and irrelevant references to Pakistan’s past history that one could either feel pity for this man for his total lack of scruples or get enraged at him for his criminal attempt to blackmail Pakistan’s Army as well as Judiciary. The crux of his diatribes was that Pakistan’s key institutions had joined hands in a series of ‘criminal acts’ against him— only to uproot democracy from the country. He stopped short of accusing the Pak Army of having trumped up the Panama Leaks, but he did argue that his decision to put General Musharraf on trial for treason under article 6 of the Constitution had led to “he himself” becoming a victim of the Pak Army’s rage.
What are the State’s options now in the face of an ex-Prime Minister, embarking upon THE PATH OF BLACKMAIL?
Short of a firing squad and a noose around his neck, MNS deserves every punishment.