Sharifs in the eye of Panama storm

It is said a week is a long time in politics. This is more so relevant for Pakistan where things keep on happening at a faster pace than one could cope to follow them up. How wise that politician was who said it was easier to ride a tiger than be in politics in Pakistan -— a country where conspiracy mill is doing over time and where rumour mongers continue to have a field day.

It seems Panama leaked papers overly exposing the investment by top leaders of their ill-gotten or undeclared wealth in offshore financial havens would drown many in the canal’s murky waters. So far it has claimed prime minister of Iceland who out of his sheer moral compulsion preferred to resign rather than stay glued to his chair dubiously. Unfortunately not many other countries and their leaders named in the Panama offshore scam have that sort of profound moral moorings.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has also been under pressure to quit following disclosure that he too had an offshore investment.

Hundreds and thousands of British tax-paying protesters have held rallies outside 10-Downing Street demanding their prime minister to step down for betraying their trust. Cameron has come up with his tax record in his defence. So has Ukrainian prime minister resigned under mounting pressure. How many politicians holding public offices would show preference to walk out rather be ignominiously thrown out is to be seen in the days to come.

People of Pakistan who are used to hearing all sorts of corruption charges being leveled against their rulers and other politicians by the local media 24/7 too found themselves on the wrong foot when the Panamanian bomb exploded. The rulers and their media mongers tried to undermine the real story before its explosion by implanting sob stories of how Zulfikar Ali Bhutto nationalised so-called multibillion steel empire of the Sharif clan and its subsequent rise from rags to riches at phenomenal jet speed due to enormous compensation it received from President General Ziaul Haq in millions for Sharif’s nationalised tuppence. These accounts have been contradicting each other at each and every step.

So far no explanation has been found plausible enough for the defence of Sharif family’s offshore accounts and where those mega amounts emanated from. While British Prime Minister David Cameron has come up with his tax records but the Sharif family members don’t have anything that much to show as paid tax in the national exchequer.

No doubt Prime Minister Sharif did move cleverly to deflect the mounting pressure on him for his resignation by rushing to appoint a judicial commission. Major Parliamentary Opposition parties PPPP and Imran Khan’s PTI -— while rejecting it -- have rightly described such a move as a bid for cover up of the sins of omission and commission of the Sharif government. Imran and his PTI are determined to hold a dharna to demand Nawaz’s resignation later this month.

The validity of this judicial commission became more dubious when two of the highly respected retired Supreme Court chief justices, approached by the interior minister to be members of the judicial commission, politely declined the request. Their decision to keep away from the commission was an outright expression of distrust of the people in such an abused contraption resorted to by the government to ease itself of pressure.

Doom sayers who had been since long predicting an ignominious end of the government now are confident that mounting street pressure would force the government to pack up and go. The powers that be itching to step in since long on the dismal failure of the government to let it have a free hand to eliminate terrorists thriving under the Punjab government’s patronage — would willingly opt for this god-given opportunity.

While tainted billions belonging to Sharif family stand exposed before the world, their charges of corruption against former President Asif Zardari did not find any iota of mention in the 11 million documents reportedly showing how Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca helped a number of current and former world leaders to enjoy the tax evasive Panamanian bliss and protection for the ill-gotten money.

It is both a slap on the face of ex-Senator Saifur Rehman who, during the Nawaz regime, spent millions of dollars in order to dig Zardari’s allegedly ill-gotten fictional wealth, it as well exposes Sharif’s immediate successor General Pervez Musharraf who pursued the same line of vendetta against Zardari. His regime too spent millions of dollars to find out AAZ’s perceived corruption. Both the rulers did not have anything substantive as proof in their hand against AAZ and they had to blatantly resort to break his resilience by keeping him in prison for 11 long years without a conviction. When the turn for the first came to face the music, he took no time to sign a ten-year agreement with GPM to live in exile following his merciful pardon. And his successor too has followed his track and is now gone abroad with the support of MNS leaving undecided various cases including martyred Benazir Bhutto’s murder.

AAZ’s had warned MNS not very long ago when the Sharif government became party to political vendetta against PPP.

It started with the arrest of Dr Asim Hussain who was accused of all sorts of crimes under the sun including aiding and abetting terrorists, corruption and money laundering. AAZ told the prime minister that he should only do that much that he could be able to bear himself when his turn to get it repaid in the same coin comes.

Though there was a consensus among political parties that 2013 elections were overly rigged — yet PPPP as the largest party — accepted the result and President Zardari very gracefully transferred power to Mian Sahib. In an article immediately after I had described it as the finest hour for democracy. It was indeed a great achievement of President Zardari for successfully completing his five year constitutionally land mark tenure. I wrote a letter of congratulations to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and among many things, I had advised him to remember the words of American philosopher George Santayana:

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

However, sudden appearance of his hatchet man ex-Senator Saifur Rehman in Pakistan made me shudder to think that most probably we are likely to see more of the old oppressive order when judges were told to punish martyred Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari for nothing but the whims of a paranoid and mentally sick National Accountability chief. I did not want to -- as I wanted Charter of Democracy to blossom into a document good for the health of the nation—to see history repeat itself and George Santayana warning come true.

Last but not the least, I would like to repeat that the best way out of any dilemma is to pursue unity in diversity, seek consensus based solutions to our problems and act as a fraternity in face of adversity. Pakistani politicians especially have to learn this lesson.

Instead of behaving like Kilkenny cats, they must revert to Quaid’s dictum of unity with a singularity of purpose in defence of democracy and the constitution as the best insurance for country’s survival, its progress, prosperity and peaceful co-existence of its multi-ethnic society to move forward to establish an egalitarian order based on socio-economic justice and equality for all its citizens.

The author is former High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK