THE old Leaguers scoff at their party being likened to the PPP. And if some sections of the old guard within the PML-N are a little too perturbed by the Panama wave they would be justified in their reaction. The PML-N is a party that is troubled by allegations of financial and other types of corruption. These may be difficult to prove in legal terms, but an ever-growing number of people see some politically damning substance in the allegations. Until some time ago, this was a role for the PPP to fit into as if by right. The circumstantial pull has ensured that the PPP’s sometimes ally is also made to realise how the PPP feels.

This is not for the first time that the house of Sharifs has been targeted by nosy media persons who must from time to time scavenge piles of litter to feed the monster that employs them. Indeed, some kind of corruption did figure in the charge-sheet on the two occasions when Mr Nawaz Sharif’s government was asked to pack up.

What is different between then and now is the level of ferocity. And the fact that the ranks of the accusers are swelled by the righteous who, unlike the PML-N’s past opponents, are supposed to have the moral strength to deliver a staggering blow to the Sharifs.

The campaign will go on for some time. The PTI chief Imran Khan has already declared his keenness to stage a protest in Islamabad seeking to revive the enthusiasm that marked his sit-in in the capital in 2014. There appears to be some truth to the theory which says that a corruption scandal was what a lackadaisical and groping PTI was looking for. It must be happy with the way the media has pounced upon the, as yet unrevealed and unsorted, packages delivered in the name of the Panama Papers.

What is a moot point is that some in the media are poised to go exclusively after the Sharif family names.

What is a moot point for the Pakistani version of the anti-corruption crusaders from among the list, which includes local judges, businessmen and sundry figures of some prominence, is that some in the media are poised to go exclusively after the Sharif family names. But in a most striking change of profiles, positions and roles, they are ready to spare the usual suspects of the past on the list such as Benazir Bhutto and Rehman Malik and some ‘associates’ of Asif Zardari. Clearly, they draw little pleasure from flogging the fallen when they can unleash the demons of summary accountability on far meatier and far more relevant substitutes.

Yes the debate about it being illegal or plainly unethical or even immoral is going to continue, confined to the sidelines. It is going to go on just as once upon a time, in our attempt at being distinct from the pack, we would declare that corruption was not the real issue, that it was just a diversion, a ploy to paint the democratically elected in dark and sinister tones. A similar debate can be endlessly conducted today pointing to the dangers a morality-based approach can lead to.

Quite honestly, once the moral debate is under way, no amount of persuasion can bring it to a point of agreement, whereas the legal argument is bound by a framework. Yet the big question as always will be how the people, by and large, view the entire situation. In the moment of heat, not too many may be inclined to have an academic discussion about whether it is a moral battle or a legal one. It feeds on perceptions and ideas that have roots among the Pakistani people.

In the days to come, a large number of Pakistanis are likely to see things not from a legal or moral perspective but through the lens of their own biases. They are going to be minutely looking at the attitudes of the ruling camp for any signs of weakness, and as is quite often the case, the loudness with which the PML-N reacts is liable to be seen as a sign of weak defence.

The attention is going to be focused on who it actually is that has come to the defence of the Sharif family and who has not. Questions are going to be asked repeatedly and there will have to be more than a prime ministerial speech about a glorious family tradition and all the fury and shock that has been in evidence from the party’s platform since Mr Nawaz Sharif’s address to the nation which was meant to clear the air sufficiently.

One more time, just as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari might have appeared to a few to be gearing up for a challenge, the PML-N might again be looking for some support from the PPP — the original, natural corruption suspect that hardly needs a legal conviction. The PML-N tactic would be to try and prevent the PPP and PTI from joining forces. And while ostensibly it is going to be a more complicated task now than during the dharna, it is hardly an impossible one given the PPP’s trajectory. In fact, given the brilliant moves the PPP leadership has been applauding itself for in recent years support to the PML-N in the name of saving democracy is not beyond Mr Zardari and his associates.

Will the formula work as it did, eventually, in the time of the dharna? Will it succeed in frustrating the PTI push? How tough will it be for the PML-N considering that it has since angered some other allies or neutral groups such as the ones represented by the Jamaat-i-Islami and the JUI-F? The field has since gone through so many changes which will explain the fierceness with which the PML-N camp has greeted the latest attack on their leaders. But then this is exactly what the PTI wanted after looking so desperately — and for a longish stretch of time —for material to hit the government with.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2016