Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment along with a fine of eight million pounds and consfiscation of his Avenfield flats in London. His daughter Mariam Nawaz has been sentenced to seven years’ jail and his son-in-law Capt Safdar Awan has been given a one-year jail term by the NAB court Judge Mohammed Bashir in the Avenfield apartments corruption case.
On 28 July 2017, Nawaz Sharif was disqualified under section 99(1) (f ) of the Representation of the People Act, and Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution of Pakistan as a member of the National Assembly by the Supreme Court for non-declaration of his ‘receivable’ salary from capital FZE in the nomination papers.
Consequently, NAB (National Accountability Bureau) filed four references against the Sharif family about the London properties, the establishment of sixteen companies, including Flagship Investment Ltd in the UK and Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).
The former premier and his sons were named in all three references, while his daughter Mariam and son-in-law Capt, Safdar figured in the Avenfield reference. Another blow to Nawaz was the Supreme Court ruling that disqualified him from heading the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) on 13 April 2018.
The Panama Papers case relates to four flats – 16, 16A, 17, 17A at Avenfield House, Park Lane, London – which were purchased in June 1993 and July 1996 by two offshore companies, Nielsen Holdings Limited and Nescoll Limited which belonged to his children. The family initially showed ignorance about them, but circumstantial proof confuted their claims.
Nawaz Sharif was born on 25 December 1949 in the house of Mohammad Sharif and lived in the Akbari Gate area of Lahore. They are Kashmiri Brahmin Muslims and belonged to Anantnag in Kashmir. His great-grandfather Khuda Baksh migrated to Amritsar in the 1860s.
One of his sons, Ramzan Sharif started living in Jati Umra Village in Tarn Taran district near Amritsar in the 1880s. His father Mohammad Sharif was born in Jati Umra and was one of the seven sons of Ramzan Sharif. Nawaz studied at Saint Anthony’s Convent School and Government College, and did his L.LB from Punjab University, Lahore.
Initially, he helped his father in Ittefaq Industries but later joined as Sector Commander in the Civil Defence department of Punjab Government in 1978. He served there for about three years. The then Governor of Punjab Lt. Gen. Ghulam Jilani Khan appointed him as Finance Minister of Punjab in May 1981. He was later made the Chief Minister of Punjab (Pakistan) after party-less elections in May 1985. He became the Prime Minister of Pakistan for the first time on 6 November 1990.
Nawaz’s complex personality made him an enigma to people. As a politician he was initially very humble, polite and well mannered. In 2009, Sartaj Aziz, a Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) officer turned politician and later Foreign Minister, wrote that Nawaz was very impulsive by nature and therefore thrived on dramatic moves rather than well-considered decisions. Sartaz attributed this to Nawaz’s strong belief in the importance of his personal power, a belief that was based on his public support.
Not surprisingly, he adopted “a system of personalized decisionmaking, without adequate consultations or participation of his cabinet colleagues, parliament or other pertinent bodies.” It was this need to consolidate his personal power base rather than the institutions for a viable democratic system which ultimately led to his precipitous downfall. In fact that became the cause of his three dismissals/ removals – on 18 July 1993, 12 October 1999 and 28 July 2017.
It is clear that Nawaz earned wealth through questionable means. His 3,200- acre farmhouse in Jati Umra in Raiwind near Lahore shows his opulent and flamboyant style of living and audacious wastage of public money for personal benefits.
A conspicuous feature of Nawaz’s governance style has been his dictatorial attitude. This was quite evident in his second tenure when he had clear majority in the National Assembly. He started off by curtailing the powers of the president to dismiss an elected prime minister by repealing the obnoxious eighth amendment of the Constitution.
He then dismissed a navy chief (Admiral Fasih Bukhari) on corruption charges and forced the army chief (Gen Jahangir Karamat) to resign for suggesting a national security council. He removed the Chief Justice ( Justice Sajjad Ali Shah) and the president Farooq Ahmad Leghari. Also, Benazir Bhutto, the then leader of the opposition, was disqualified from holding public office for seven years.
All this had placed Nawaz in a position that perhaps no other prime minister enjoyed in Pakistan’s history. However, instead of using these opportunities to provide good governance, his rule turned authoritarian, and did not accept the rule of law and institutional limits on the use of power.
Nawaz Sharif appointed five Army Chiefs (Gen. Abdul Waheed Kakar, Gen. Asif Nawaz Janjua, Gen. Parvez Musharraf, Gen. Raheel Sharif and Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa) during his three tenures as Prime Minster. The relationship with all five chiefs and thus with the Establishment and its protégé, the Pakistan Judiciary, went from bad to worse.
Nawaz Sharif neither learnt from past blunders nor demonstrated the intellectual capacity to handle the humongous problems facing Pakistan in over three-anda- half decades in politics.
It is certain that the establishment would not allow his party to come back to power in the 25 July 2018 elections because they feel that he has a penchant to use favourable electoral verdicts as an excuse to indulge in corruption on a massive scale and also the imperiousness and arrogance of power to venture in no-go areas (the Defence Policy, Nuclear Policy, India, China, Afghanistan, Iran, Middle East and US policies of Pakistan) for civilian politicians.
The Panama Papers show the despondency that is tormenting Pakistan; the political system has evolved in a manner that allows the powerful to plunder the country with impunity. Nawaz represented a new breed of businessmen-cum politicians.
This class of politicians no doubt dilutes the influence of both the Left and the Islamic parties to some extent. The options for Nawaz Sharif have withered away – he has either to live in England or stay in jail in Pakistan. Only time will tell which option he plumps for.
The writer is an IAS officer of the Punjab cadre and works as Secretary to the Government of Punjab.