Is The Era Of Sharif Family Over?

The Sharif family seems to be fighting for its last survival. Within two months, the existing governments in Punjab and the federal will come to an end and the new caretaker prime minister and the caretaker chief minister will arrive. During the same time period, the Sharif family will be punished for corruption in special court proceedings.

The Sharif family’s ten years rule in Punjab and five years rule in centre will come to an end as soon as the interim government arrives. However, one can still say that they will win the next election or the caretaker governments of their own choice, just like 2013. The people of their own choice will be appointed in the centre and the Punjab to form the caretaker government as according to the constitution, the opposition and the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister have to finalize the setup of the caretaker governments. But the constitution says something else as well. Although Nawaz Sharif will try to bring the caretaker Prime Minister of his choice; however, under the law, he also has to seek the acceptance of opposition leader. If the leader of the opposition does not give his consent then the matter goes to the six members committee of the house and if the committee does not agree on one name then the matter goes to the Election Commission. Now let’s see if Nawaz Sharif will be able to bring his own caretaker PM this time.

I think it will be difficult and absolutely impossible. There are a few reasons. The first is that if Nawaz Sharif could not bring his chairman to the Senate even though he was the Prime Minister and had a majority. Then rest assured that he would not be able to bring his own caretaker PM. This time, Zardari is not ready to play with Nawaz Sharif. So, Zardari considered it appropriate to support Imran Khan instead of uniting with Nawaz Sharif in the Senate.

The same will happen in the caretaker government this time. When Zardari-made opposition leader in the centre, Khurshid Shah does not accept the name given by the Prime Minister Abbasi and gives his names, it will certainly be conflicting and Prime Minister Abbasi will refuse to accept the opposition’s names. The matter will then go to the National Assembly Committee, where the opposition and the government will have equal members. Even there, the PPP and PTI will not agree with the names proposed by the Prime Minister Abbasi. And when that legal and constitutional period is over and the matter is not settled, then all the names will be sent to the Election Commission to decide the final names and then the Election Commissioner will finalize the same names which are proposed by the opposition parties. If you do not believe that the caretaker PM will be one of the persons proposed by the opposition, then let me give you a hint, ‘Who is the Chairman of the Senate at this time?’.

This same will be the case in Punjab, where Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will consult the opposition leader of PTI Mehmood Ur Rashid under the law and will have to select a common name. When the opposition leaders will not accept the names that Shahbaz Sharif will propose, then there will be a conflict. Then the matter will be handed over to the parliamentary committee, where the issue won’t get resolved either. Hence, it will be the election commissioner who will announce the nomination for the caretaker Chief Minister Punjab.

You will be surprised to know how Khosa and Najam Sethi became the caretaker Prime Minister and the caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab respectively, the last time? The reason was that in 2013, the PPP and the Muslim League were playing political matches together. They had decided their turns. First, both the parties played matches in 2008 by sharing ministries and then Leader of the Opposition was selected from the PPP. Thus, when the time came for the creation of caretaker governments in 2013, the decision of the caretaker governments in the centre and in Punjab was to be decided by Nawaz Sharif, Zardari, Shahbaz Sharif and the PPP. Najam Sethi, since he had offered his journalistic services to various political leaders on different occasions, so both knew that he was their own guy and could be trusted. In addition, Najam Sethi was always acceptable for the establishment. Then dozens of secret meetings of Shahbaz Sharif and Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan with General Kayani started showing the positive results. So, Zardari also knew that he would not be able to get votes from Punjab this time, hence, such person should be selected in Punjab who is suitable to Sharif brothers. The same thing happened in the centre and the weak Khosa was made the caretaker Prime Minister. One had to be chosen among Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan. Imran Khan had boasted a few months before the election that if he became the Prime Minister then he will shot down the US drones. This must have raised concerns that he would start a war like that of Mullah Omar. Thus, Imran Khan’s name was cut off. Nawaz Sharif was dropped from all cases after ten years. Shahbaz Sharif had numerous extra judicial killing cases on him, he was also granted bail and continued to run the ministries for several years as a chief minister on stay orders and bail. Nawaz Sharif was able to get pardon for his fourteen-year sentence after ten years and quietly withdraws his 21-year ban and also forfeited Rs. 40 crores paid to the NAB, which no one has known yet. All such situations were in favour of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. That is how everyone came together to bring the House of Sharif back to power. And they got the results they wanted. The MNAs and uneducated MPAs of the PML-N were woken up while they were sleeping in their houses at night and told that they had won, even though some of them had already accepted the defeat.

You would ask, what has happened now that the situation is against the Sharif family? I think you all know that things have changed. Firstly, Imran Khan’s sit-ins have removed Nawaz Sharif’s fears from the hearts of the nation. A new generation has emerged in these five years, which for the first time found out through the Panama Lakes that how much corruption the Sharif family has done and in what continents of the world do they have properties. The country’s prime minister was caught working part-time in Dubai in his son’s company for which he was not getting paid though. The younger generation, for the first time, found out that politics was done not for service but for personal looting. Nawaz Sharif was shocked that those he had planted with his own hands did not stay with him. The question is, who is to blame? As Nawaz Sharif has attacked the institutions, then no one can defend him, no matter how sympathetic he is towards Sharifs.

The tables are turned. The Sharif family had escaped from General Musharraf’s martial law, but now that the atmosphere has changed and the Imran Zardari growing alliance, which is rapidly eradicating Sharif’s politics, I do not think the Sharif family will be out of the storm anytime soon. Those who mounted the Sharif family are now planning to take them down.

The Chief Justice has said that this time there will be transparent elections in history. That means the Punjab bureaucracy, which is now being arrested by NAB for corruption and the presiding officers will not be allowed to rig the election. Everyone knows they can’t win a match without an umpire and now the umpires are not on their side. When the two big umpires are against the Sharif family, then it is not difficult to predict that their time is up. Umpires are supposed to be neutral, but in current scenario they are against the Sharif family, which can make one think twice about the fairness of the upcoming elections.

(Published in Monthly Tribute International on 01-03-2018)