The credibility of Pakistan’s political establishment, tormented as it has been in the recent past, has been severely eroded with Monday’s conviction of Nawaz Sharif by an accountability court in one of the two references against him.
After a brief moment of freedom, the former Prime Minister and one-time leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) is back in jail to serve a seven-year sentence. The comeuppance has palpably compounded the personal tragedy that he had suffered only a few months ago.
Indeed, the latest verdict lengthens the loop of severe judicial setbacks that have wrecked his political career ~ permanent disqualification from elected office, a temporarily suspended 11-year conviction, and now the Christmas- eve award of a seven-year sentence. Ever since he was judicially ejected from power, he has been shuttling between the court and jail, when not out on bail as he was till Sunday.
He will now have to countenance an uphill task to shore up his image ~ if ever ~ and the stout condemnation of the judgment by his spirited daughter, Maryam Sharif, can scarcely prevent the law from taking its course. She has termed the conviction of her father in the Al Azizia case as an instance of ‘blind revenge’.
In the credibility stakes, the standing of both Sharif and the party that he led has plummeted almost to its nadir. It could be a long legal battle ahead not the least because the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has signalled its intent to appeal against his acquittal in the third accountability reference against him.
Trends in the immediate aftermath of the conviction suggest that appeals will vie against appeals in court, for Sharif has resolved to contest his latest conviction. The doubts articulated by the PML (N) and Sharif’s family against the process of accountability will not break the ice.
Parties and politics are in turmoil as both the PML (N) and PPP are, like fish, rotting from the head. While Sharif seems set to languish behind bars, Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People’s Party may be headed for disqualification or prison. Legal proceedings against Zardari are still in the preliminary stage, but the Supreme Court is seized of the matter under its suo motu powers.
While a report of the Joint Investigation Team is not the same as conclusive evidence, the charges against Zardari are critical enough and the Supreme Court will almost certainly press him and others implicated in the JIT report to come up with an adequate response.
Rather than politicising matters, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf will be expected to keep its distance. It didn’t on Monday when the Information Minister, Fawad Chaudhry, was called upon to explain Sharif’s conviction. It did run counter to Imran Khan’s essay towards a political balance with the appointment of Shahbaz Sharif, leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.