Why are you celebrating, Nawaz Sharif?
It’s not over as yet!
By Shakir Lakhani Published: April 20, 2017
The long wait is finally over. The honorable judges have
announced the verdict in the Panama Leaks case, and the overjoyed
followers of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are distributing sweets under the
assumption that their leader has been exonerated and declared innocent of any
wrongdoing.
Dear
Nawaz Sharif, they are wrong. It was a split verdict, and you escaped by the
skin of your teeth. Two out of the five judges ruled that you should be
disqualified, because you are not “sadiq” (honest) and “ameen” (upright) as
required by the Constitution. The other three judges stated that further
investigation is required and ordered for a judicial investigation team (JIT)
to ascertain how money was sent by your family from Pakistan to Qatar, which
ultimately resulted in the purchase of the London flats by your sons.
So
then why are you celebrating, Mr Nawaz? Don’t you realise that your submissions
to the honourable court have not been accepted, and you have not been declared
completely innocent as yet? Three judges have been very polite, saying that
there is not enough evidence yet to prove you guilty, and have given you time
to produce credible information which could exonerate you. But it is
doubtful if you’ll be able to do it, because if you did indeed have any such
evidence, you would have produced it in court by now.
Do you know what a decent, upright man in a civilised country
would have done if he’d been implicated in a corruption case? He would
immediately have resigned until proven innocent. The prime minister of Iceland was one of those named as having an
offshore company, and he had to resign. But you, of course, did not do so,
thinking that you could buy your way out of trouble.
Right
from the start, when the Panama Leaks surfaced about a year ago, you have tried
your best to deflect people’s attention from the issue. You did not speak the
truth in the National Assembly where you did not mention anything
about your family’s involvement with the Qatar prince, you hemmed and hawed and
said that your family had been victimised by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, as if that
gave you the right to loot the people.
The
nation has had enough, Mr Nawaz. The poor, toiling masses of course have no
idea what Panamagate is, they are too concerned with trying to survive. But
those who pay taxes are
bitter at the fact that it was their money which has gone into making you and
other politicians filthily rich. You have lost the high moral ground which
makes you think that just because your party keeps winning by-elections, the
people love you.
And
I’m not the only one who thinks you should resign; even Imran Khan and Asif Ali Zardari are saying the same thing. According
to Zardari,
“Today
the nation has been deceived…On what grounds is PML-N celebrating and
distributing sweets? Are they celebrating that two senior judges called for the
prime minister’s disqualification?”
Don’t be selfish, Mr Nawaz. If
you are not flexible enough and are determined not to let go, remember what
happened to the obstinate Bhutto, whose intransigence first dismembered this
country and then cost him his life. Please think of the country, which is in
danger of sliding into a civil war if you are determined to cling to power,
despite what the judges said today.
So
do the honourable thing, Mr Nawaz. Just resign, move abroad, and live the good
life, or you will come to a disgraceful end, like Ayub Khan and Bhutto did.
The people of Pakistan have
suffered enough, and it is only a matter of time before the spark is ignited
and you are forced out of office. You still have a chance to make an honourable
exit, do so before matters do not turn out in your favour like they did today.
Engineer, former visiting lecturer at NED Engineering College,
industrialist, associated with petroleum/chemical industries for many years.
Loves writing, and (in the opinion of most of those who know him), mentally
unbalanced. He tweets @shakirlakhani (twitter.com/shakirlakhani)
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/48968/why-are-you-celebrating-nawaz-sharif-its-not-over-as-yet/
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