Rivals pin hopes on SC for PM’s ouster

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s principal rivals, who have failed to oust him through a barrage of machinations over the past three years, have hinged their last hope on the Supreme Court to do the job.

However, it is certainly a naive, simplistic but ambitious expectation because superior courts always strictly go by the book without fear or favour.

First, this set of highly motivated warriors pinned high hopes on the military intervention but to no avail. They made a powerful attempt in 2014 to rope in the army but General Raheel Sharif vehemently rejected the bait and annihilated their design. Then again they embarked upon a destructive path by threatening to lock down the federal capital but at the end of the day faced comprehensive embarrassment and massive political damage. After consistent letdowns, they have now attached their high expectations to the Supreme Court. It is not a bad idea but making assertions solely meant to pressurize the top court is without a doubt not a good idea.

In an article headlined “not the army this time but the judiciary” in an Urdu newspaper, retired major general Zahid Mubashir, an apparent Nawaz Sharif hater and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan lover, echoed the theme being propagated by the premier’s leading political foes.

After showering acclaims on the PTI chairman for showing wisdom by calling off the lockdown programme and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for demonstrating heroism, the author wrote that the judiciary was faced with the biggest test of Pakistan’s history. He believed that it was positive that the nation was looking towards the judiciary side by side the Pakistan Army.

Agenda driven TV anchors are in the forefront in disseminating the same opinion in the hope that the judiciary will do what they could not despite running a most lethal campaign against the democratic dispensation led by Nawaz Sharif. They continue to build castles in the air, and nobody can stop them from daydreaming.

Imran Khan also obviously wants a ruling from the Supreme Court that translates his dream of ousting the prime minister into reality. Otherwise he will definitely do what he always does when a favourable judgment is not delivered by any court of law.

He had the same delusion when a judicial commission of the top court had inquired into his allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections. He kept putting pressure on the judicial forum to get a report of his choice but in vain for the simple reason that he had totally failed to establish his case and all the “truckloads” of material turned to be trash.

On the other hand, a person no less than the prime minister himself has declared more than once that he will accept the decision of the judicial body. He had presented himself for his, to borrow Imran Khan’s peculiar jargon, ‘search’ by the highest judicial forum immediately after the Panama Papers scandal had erupted in April.

Nawaz Sharif’s confidence about the veracity and truth of his case was abundantly exhibited when he decided not to even challenge the maintainability of the petitions seeking his disqualification or investigation into the offshore companies. He has not done anything new or unusual, but has reiterated his stand that he had taken at the very outset, asserting that his hands are clean and he was not afraid of any inquest.

The prime minister’s standpoint reflected in his rejoinder to the petitions, filed in the Supreme Court, is not even a slight departure from what he had announced in his two addresses to the nation and a speech to the National Assembly on the Panama scandal. His reply is just a repeat of these speeches.  There is not even a slight difference between the stances taken by Nawaz Sharif and his son-in-law and Maryam’s husband Cap (retd) Safdar. The premier unambiguously stated that Maryam neither is nor ever was the beneficial owner of the offshore companies — Nescoll, Nielson and Coomber Group. He also defended his daughter and rejected the allegations that she owned offshore companies.

After these replies, there is no doubt that Maryam, Hussain and Hassan will take the same line in their replies, to be submitted to the apex court on Monday. As the Panama scam was unearthed, the premier’s son, Hussain, declared that he was ready to defend his position before any judicial forum.

The only evidence and proofs that Imran Khan has against Nawaz Sharif and his children relating to the offshore companies and London properties are the printouts, statements of the respondents made at different times in interviews to the media and a book written by a foreign author. He is relying on what he claims contradictions in their remarks on the offshore companies and London apartments. It is not publicly known that he has any other evidence in his possession against the Sharifs that is to be put before the judicial body.

It will become clear in the next few days as the judicial commission will launch its proceedings whether or not the Internet material or printouts, statements of the defendants made to the electronic and print media and stuff written in any book will be admissible and acceptable in the eye of law.

However, when the respondents repudiate all of Imran Khan’s allegations, the onus will be on the PTI chief to give a lie to their denials with documentary proof. Mere public statements issued out of the court with a lot of pump and show may serve as good propaganda but the court will obviously need credible, concrete and unimpeachable evidence.