The widely expected verdict against Sharif solidifies the impression that a creeping coup is underway in Pakistan.
New Delhi: Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif was convicted of corruption by an accountability court in Islamabad Friday and sent to jail for 10 years, thereby freeing up the field in Pakistan for a pro-military establishment PM when elections take place on 25 July.
The widely expected verdict, coming in the wake of a Supreme Court decision last year disqualifying Nawaz Sharif from politics, solidifies the impression that a creeping coup is underway in Pakistan.
The press is being muzzled, and most critical commentary is off the air. The Dawn newspaper is not being distributed in several towns and cities across Pakistan. Journalists are being arrested and beaten up. Several have left the country. Civil society activists have disappeared.
Even as Pakistan moves towards the only second democratic election in its history, it is clear the military-establishment wants complete control over all of the country’s sinews and muscles.
Pakistan won’t be put under martial law, like Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq did on 5 July, 1977 – in what was ironically called ‘Operation Fair Play’ – and it may not even have to go through a coup, like what Pervez Musharraf did in October 1999.
‘Moderated democracy’ is the preferred phrase in Pakistan these days. Unlike Turkey’s ‘enlightened democrats’, which Musharraf particularly held up as a model, Pakistan’s army is hugely influenced by the China model, where speaking your mind is severely discouraged.
Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother Shahbaz Sharif told the press that the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the political party that he and his brother built, will fight the verdict. The accountability court’s decision would definitely have an impact on the political process, he said.
“We need to find a political solution of this beemari (illness). The law is equal for all. We will fight this,” he said.
But some analysts in Pakistan said his voice didn’t sound too convincing. Shahbaz, said to be a more moderate voice than his brother, could be a compromise candidate if the all-powerful army agrees.
Imran Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is a leading army favourite to become prime minister, although things weren’t going so well in his favour recently. His former wife’s tell-all autobiography has been the rage and doesn’t cast him in good light.
“The army may not approve of him completely, but he is their best bet,” said an analyst close to the center of power in Pakistan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Nawaz and his daughter, Maryam, who was sentenced for 7 years, are both in London, looking after Nawaz’s wife who is sick with cancer. She has been put on a ventilator.
The father and daughter had requested for the court to delay the verdict by a week, but the court didn’t comply. Along with his jail sentence, Nawaz must pay $10 million, while Maryam was fined $2 million.
It is unlikely that Nawaz and Maryam will return to Pakistan. Perhaps that is what the military-establishment wanted – them out of the way, when the elections are held.
One wonders what role China is playing in these developments. Normally, they kept themselves aloof from internal politics but that is changing, especially in South Asia. The long term success of the CPEC requires a peaceful, progressive Pakistan, something the army cannot deliver on a sustainable basis.
Please don’t mislead the Indian people.
The Indian people get much better analysis of Pakistani affairs than do the Pakistani people. With all of the cencorship of Dawn and Jang, its obvious the Army wants a puppet in the PM seat. Imran Khan is that convenient puppet.