Back to square one

Published April 30, 2016

That raucous sound you hear in the distance is Asif Zardari laughing at Nawaz Sharif’s predicament over the Panama Papers leaks.

Whether he’s in Dubai, London or New York, I’m sure he’s revelling in the prime minister’s political and personal pain over the disclosure of his children’s names as beneficiaries of offshore companies registered in Panama. Above all, he’s glad he’s not in Pakistan to face calls for accountability and disclosure.

Just as he was subjected to constant harassment and interference from the ex-chief justice, Chaudhry Iftikhar, Nawaz Sharif has met his nemesis in Imran Khan. The PTI leader has grasped the Panama scandal with all the desperation of a drowning man handed a lifeline.

Editorial: Probing Panama

Until the story broke, he had given up on his ambition to force early elections when his Islamabad sit-in 2014 fizzled out after months of holding the country to ransom. Having only reluctantly accepted the findings of the judicial commission formed by the Supreme Court to probe his election rigging charges, he is now pinning his hopes on yet another commission set up by the same august body.

But not just any judicial commission. He wants it to be headed by the chief justice, and demands a say about the terms of reference under which it will operate. And his party does not like the law it would function under either: a PTI leader insisted on a TV chat show that a new law would have to be passed to enable the commission to probe into financial wrongdoing outside the country.


Imran Khan is pinning his hopes on yet another commission.


The ToRs proposed by the prime minister include all kinds of corruption ranging from money-laundering to having bank loans written off. Considering how many politicians have stuck their snouts into the trough that is the public exchequer, this would keep His Lordship busy for several years.

Nawaz Sharif didn’t get to where he is by being gullible: he knows that by expanding the scope of the judicial inquiry, he will be just one of the many being investigated. And such an open-ended probe will inevitably take forever. Above all, where all are guilty, none are guilty.

But all this presupposes that the chief justice will take on this thankless exercise. He has seen the criticism that was directed at his colleague who headed the commission into election rigging at Imran Khan’s insistence. He is also aware that the speed of the investigation will depend largely on how quickly the bureaucracy hands over the documents related to these allegations.

He also knows that the bulk of this evidence is abroad with banks, law firms and offshore companies. Whether they will cooperate is still unknown as he has no jurisdiction over them. He will no doubt recall the fate of the decade-long investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s and Asif Zardari’s Swiss bank accounts. After spending millions of dollars on that case, Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf ended up with no conviction.

So given these hard facts, why would the chief justice wish to put his hand into this hornet’s nest? He can easily toss the ball back into the government’s court by saying it has agencies that should be able to probe the Panama charges. So we end up with NAB and its questionable performance.

We also go back to square one with Imran Khan threatening to launch yet another anti-Nawaz movement. Luckily, this time he wants a sit-in at the Raiwind residence of the Sharif family, so the capital won’t have to endure another noisy, dirty protest outside parliament.

But don’t get me wrong: I hold no brief for Nawaz Sharif and would love to see him held to account for any wrongdoing. I am sure he used his earlier stints as finance minister and then chief minister of Punjab under Zia to advance his family’s business interests. However, political patronage is not the same as corruption before the law.

To get permits, loans and licences for a family business when you are in power is morally wrong, and constitutes a conflict of interest. However, these things are very difficult to prove as there is no written record of any such orders being given. All it takes is a few telephone calls made by an underling.

The focus of the current allegations is the ownership of four Mayfair properties held by offshore companies; the beneficiaries of these holdings are Nawaz Sharif’s two sons and his daughter.

But we have known about these flats for over 20 years, and while they were in the news in the mid-90s nobody has since got very excited about them.

It is a fact that our prime minister has always managed to pay very little tax. Perhaps this would be a more useful line of inquiry. After all, the FBI finally managed to nail the infamous Al Capone on a tax charge, and not for all the other crimes he was guilty of.

irfan.husain@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2016

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