Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s refusal to step down in the wake of a damning investigative report that compiled evidence of corruption surrounding his family is hardly surprising. With a history of defying the odds time and again, the surprise would have indeed come with Sharif’s graceful acceptance of the findings against him, perhaps leading to an honourable exit in line with some of the best examples of democratically elected leaders elsewhere. In sharp contrast to some of the world’s most stable democracies, Pakistan still has to learn many lessons beyond just holding regular elections.
Elected as prime minister for the third time in 2013, Sharif is adamant that he is the target of a conspiracy aimed at curtailing Pakistan’s democracy. The discussion that has continued for almost a year was triggered when three of Sharif’s four children were unexpectedly found to have owned large-scale offshore wealth, including luxurious apartments along London’s upmarket Park Lane.
Notwithstanding the frequent claim from Sharif’s political allies of a conspiracy hatched to remove him, the very fact that the revelations were triggered globally is a powerful enough reason to remove any doubts about the accusations against Sharif being fabricated on Pakistani soil. The so-called ‘Panama leaks’ revelations targeted scores of individuals including the Sharifs who chose to park their wealth overseas, in large part to avoid paying their taxes.
In sharp contrast to the 1990s, when Sharif and the late former prime minister Benazir Bhutto were each dismissed when powerful army generals in the background engineered regime changes, the same cannot be said of today. Not only were the investigations against Sharif and his family triggered by circumstances that erupted thousands of miles away from Pakistan, but the subsequent investigations have all been framed within a civilian infrastructure under a democratic environment and overseen by a civilian judicial system.
On Monday, judges of Pakistan’s Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments, following the report compiled by a six-member joint investigation team (JIT). Though the outcome of the proceedings cannot be pre-judged, some of the findings by the JIT are indeed eye-openers.
Parts of the report that were leaked to the Pakistani press found evidence of inconsistencies between the declared wealth of the Sharif family as opposed to what the JIT found. While the Sharif family claims that the JIT proceeded with malicious intent, the case itself is serious to the extent that a set of thorough investigations must be undertaken. As things stand right now, Sharif’s position has fallen under a heavy cloud of suspicion that cannot be sustained in a democratic environment.
Meanwhile, two related dimensions to the emerging picture in Pakistan only promise to harm the country’s outlook, unless this matter is settled once and for all.
On the one hand, an apparent unification of Pakistan’s opposition parties seeking an end to Sharif’s rule clearly illustrate the coming political storm gathering now on the horizon. Chants of ‘go Nawaz go’, once seen as peripheral to Pakistani politics, have now become increasingly central to the emerging picture. In the coming days, the noise across Pakistan’s political landscape is set to grow with leaps and bounds as opposition politicians demand Sharif’s resignation. Irrespective of the way the court proceeds, Pakistan’s opposition politicians today seem more united than ever before in pressing for Sharif’s exit.
On the other hand, Sharif’s visibly-defiant response has been coupled with little appreciation by the prime minister and his cronies of the urgent need to provide the country with a new direction. In the past week, news of a very ambitious plan to build a new airport building in Lahore, where an existing airport was built not too long ago, clearly shows the way Sharif remains detached from some of Pakistan’s most vital challenges.
In his four years as prime minister, Sharif has pressed ahead with large infrastructure projects that have become the so called hallmark of his self-defined development. Meanwhile, the sufferings of ordinary Pakistanis have continued unabated.
In the past month, earlier-than-expected monsoon rains marked both a blessing and a calamity for large parts of Pakistan. While farmers have clearly been happy with the early arrival of the monsoon after a scorching spell, the downside is quite obvious too. Across Pakistan, graphic TV images of rain drenched-streets and over-flowing sewerage systems indeed tell a pathetic tale of Pakistan’s infrastructure breaking down. With large parts of urban Pakistan’s low-income neighbourhoods bearing the brunt, the gaps between Sharif’s modernisation plans and the reality have become very clearly visible.
Once again, its clear that Pakistan needs a complete revamp of its urban infrastructure, its educational system and facilities for health care, rather than the high-speed highways and luxury bus service currently being pursued vigorously under Sharif’s stewardship.
Ironically, Sharif’s detachment from Pakistan’s most pressing realities and his take on the investigations against him and his family, may well narrate a sorry tale about the prime minister’s worldview. Its clear that Sharif has found it consistently hard to reconcile with any view that is not in sync with his own.
If Sharif chooses to confront his political foes at the cost of principles, Pakistan’s democracy may well be at stake. And that may unfold a much bigger dilemma for South Asia’s second-largest nuclear-armed country, beyond just the matter of who gets to rule over it.
Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.
