Nawaz stands proven true, say PML-N circles

ISLAMABAD: All the day on Friday close circles of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) kept claiming that the Supreme Court decision absolving Imran Khan of the charges leveled by his rival reinforced the post-disqualification narrative built by ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that accountability was orchestrated only to target him.

The judgment has created a win-win situation for the former prime minister because what he has been harping since his July 28 ouster has proved correct. He has been protesting on the roads and otherwise that the ruthless accountability was Nawaz Sharif-specific, and the process was launched to victimize him alone.

While expressing his anxiety over the delay in pronouncing the instant decision by the apex court and denouncing the haste in handing down verdicts against him some time back, the ex-premier had sarcastically commented that he might be disqualified in this case as well.

In the opinion of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Saeed Ghani that he expressed in a tweet before the judgment was announced, Nawaz Sharif will be in a win-win situation in any case if Imran Khan was given a clean chit or disqualified.

Imran Khan will now vehemently stress that he is honest and upright financially and committed no hanky-panky in his personal financial dealings compared to the affairs of his main rival, Nawaz Sharif. He will obviously try to cash in on this judgment in the political field.

However, a fair assessment is that what he was supposed to gain, he has already bagged and there is nothing much more for him in the political area otherwise the noose around Nawaz Sharif would not have been continuously tightened by different quarters. Only the one who is menacing owing to his rising popularity is required to be reined in through different machinations.

On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif’s stand is simple and clear: I have been witch-hunted for not bowing to pointless calls; the accountability is one-sided and partisan; and there are two sets of principals and standards of dispensation of justice – one for me and the other for my opponents.

Already, he has significantly gained after his disqualification on a trivial charge for not declaring the un-withdrawn, receivable salary from his son’s Dubai-based company. His associates repeated what he has been stating with one of them saying that justice became disqualified today.

Imran Khan is indeed euphoric over his own exoneration but the jolt he has received due to the lifetime ineligibility of his party secretary general Jehangir Tareen is overwhelming and devastating. He is not only using Tareen’s aircraft for travel almost every day but the latter has been the main financier, vastly contributing funds for different purposes.

In his comment on Tareen’s disqualification through a tweet, PPP Chairman Bilawal aptly posted that the “ATM out of order” with “#TareenOut” hashtag. PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi must be very cheerful over Tareen’s dismissal because the two are considered arch rivals within the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and their fight at times become public.

Imran Khan apparently has mixed feelings of joy and sorrow when he commented on the judgment. He was delighted over his acquittal but was visibly pained over the punishment imposed on Tareen in the same case and trashing of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeal regarding the Hudaibiya Paper Mills, owned by the Sharifs, by another bench a few hours before the verdict delivered by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar-led panel.

Tareen had been the closest lieutenant of Imran Khan among his associates and the PTI chief never bothered to annoy everyone to keep him in good humour. There have always been large-scale complaints voiced by different PTI leaders against Tareen, but Imran Khan never attached any credence to them. Abundant grievances have been frequently aired by those belonging to the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) chapter of the PTI, receiving the same treatment from Imran Khan.

The sentiments that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had over the two verdicts was not different from those of the PTI chief. It was glad over the nullification of the Hudaibiya case against the Sharifs and Tareen’s ejection, but was dejected over the clearance accorded to Imran Khan.