A nation of 200 million people, teetering on the very edge of a precipice, may just have been pulled back from the jaws of perdition, by the combined courage and commitment of Imran Khan, the five member bench of our Supreme Court plus our Chief justice, the six members of the JIT, those anchors of the TV and journalists who refused to sell themselves out, and our Army Chief who gave the Supreme Court the assurance that he will abide by his constitutional duty [should the SC need him to], and then refused to back down in the face of all blandishments and many threats through innuendo.
And yet, but for the grace of the Almighty these disparate elements could not have come together, just when I was beginning to have doubts about what He was doing up there when all of us were slated to find our way to the slaughterhouse.
Thus, for me the Supreme Court verdict against Nawaz Sharif was as much of a miracle, as was Moses’ crossing of the Red Sea.
Nawaz Sharif and his cohorts, through the unholy partnership engendered by the nefarious Charter of Democracy, which put the whole rotten lot of the grasping politicians [except PTI] on the same side and arrayed them against the state, left the defenseless state with frail chances of survival. The poisonous talons of those sworn to serve and secure Pakistan, got daily embedded ever deeper into the body of a bleeding and dying Pakistan. Every institution of the state, including the Constitution, which could have stood up on behalf of the state, they ravaged and destroyed, and from among the ranks of the bureaucracy and the police picked out the filthiest, to align with themselves to do their bidding and facilitate their debauchery of the state, and the plunder of its coffers. Unhindered and unrestrained, while sucking the lifeblood of their own motherland, they stashed up so much ungodly wealth, that they could either physically crush any opposition to their designs, or buy it out.
And notwithstanding all this, they fell into their own refuse, which they are now ingesting and breathing in, as their long slow grovel has begun.
If this is not a miracle, nothing is.
Just examine the following ingredients which went into the making of the miracle.
-The Panama Case landed out of nowhere.
-The children of Nawaz Sharif, probably as ill begotten as all their plundered wealth, in their collective genius, all variously claimed ownership of the London flats, while each contradicted the story of the other. And then entered the colossus himself into the fray, addressed the nation and the parliament to justify the family’s ownership of these properties, and spoke different sets of lies to both.
– And all this falls into the lap of Imran Khan, who for all his other frailties, was the one unpurchasable commodity on Pakistan’s political dung heap. And he, true to form, dug his canines into this issue like a “gull-tarria” [i.e bull terrier] and would just not let go.
-Then there was the Chief Justice, Mr Saqib Nisar. He had been on a panel of lawyers for Nawaz Sharif at one time, and Nawaz Sharif may well have been within his rights to expect that such close affinity with him should of rights have been enough for Saqib Nisar to lose his integrity. But Nawaz Sharif was in for the shock of his life to find, that of the abundance of filth he carried, not much may have fallen on our future Chief Justice to besmirch him.
-And miracle of miracles, in a system rotten to the core, Pakistan and the Chief Justice could yet throw up five judges of the Supreme Court who could neither be bought, nor intimidated. And as fate would have it, it was these five who sat in judgement on Nawaz’s fate. At this stage our dumb, paya eating chief executive should have been quite justified to scream that life was just not fair.
-And here witness the entrance of Mr Akram Sheikh. He is the prime legal brain of the country, come to the defense of the odious indefensible Nawaz Sharif. Judging by the size of the “mehrab” he has had chiseled on his forehead, it is obvious to all that he is also a spiritual giant of this unfortunate land. And with all these attributes the best idea he could come up with was the introduction of the infamous “Qatari Letter”, which utterly destroyed any credibility that Nawaz Sharif’s case may have had, and once introduced into evidence this hung like an albatross around the neck of the chief executive.
-And then there was the case of General Qamar Javed Bajwa who assured the Chief Justice that should the Supreme Court order the army to restore order caused by civil disturbances in the wake of any order by the SC, the army would do its duty as ordered by the Court.
And meeting the General even at a peripheral level would not fail to be struck by how utterly comfortable he is in his skin, and his total lack of arrogance. Often humility is mistaken for timidity. And this mistaken judgement led poor Nawaz Sharif into making yet another “wrong” choice in selecting “his” next Army Chief.
[A little before the Supreme Court bench hearing the Panama case was about to announce its judgement, the Chief Justice sounded out General Bajwa, and asked that, if as a consequence of the decision of the court, the latter needed the assistance of the army in any matter, would General Bajwa follow the instructions of the court. And Gen Bajwa responded that he would follow both the spirit and the letter of the law [i.e. the Constitution] and that he was cognizant of his obligations therein.]
This is what broke Nawaz Sharif’s heart, and he was led to believe that the General was on the other side. It was this knowledge on the basis of which Nawaz Sharif and his abject followers have built their elaborate conspiracy theory, which they dare not fully spell out.
-And then we have the JIT, six officers of middling rank chosen to investigate the mammoth financial crimes of a mighty criminal family, which has run one of the greatest criminal enterprises in our history for upwards of three decades! A family dripping with reproach but beyond being touched. A family which was assured immunity because they had subverted every agency or institution which could hold them accountable. And those few who had the courage to raise their heads, had these heads either beaten down, or found themselves being bought out.
And yet in this day and age, and in this Pakistan, we have these six officers of the JIT, who neither succumbed to intimidation, nor to blandishments, and did an investigative job so outstanding, to have rightly become the pride of the nation. And with this pride they cooked the fat goose of our waddling erstwhile Prime Minister, and chief thief !
-The forgeries the JIT uncovered, added layers of plaster to the “miracle” of the Qatari Letter.
-It is difficult to say what inspired the the S.C bench to add the two brigadiers to the JIT, but the effect of this addition to the JIT can fairly be conjectured as follows.
- That they were inducted invoking article 190 of the Constitution, and this disabused the government of any incorrect notions about where the army stood between the court and the government. And for the government, this constituted the ultimate proof that because the army had decided to stand by the Constitution, it was therefore “against” the government. Thus, another brick was added to the conspiracy facade being built by the government.
- The presence of the two army officers in the JIT must inevitably have given a sense of security to the other members of the team.
- The four civilian members of the JIT could not but have felt that through their representatives, the ISI and the MI were also keeping an eye on their conduct. Thus, just in case any one of them was ever in danger of succumbing to a temptation, this presence would have encouraged them to abort falling to the lure.
-And the miracle could not have been complete without the dogs of war let loose by the redoubtable Mariam. If she had read her history, she ought to have known the fate of Bhutto who, when in splendid incarceration, could not rein in his tongue. The abuse and threats Bhutto hurled at Zia ul Haq, frightened Zia into putting Bhutto’s head into the noose. So, as Mariam’s attack dogs daily bared their fangs, and attacked the Supreme Court and the Army through barely concealed innuendo, this could only have worked to bring these two institutions to close ranks. When in a hole stop digging. This Mariam seems not to have known. After all she was the prime minister in waiting. The possibility that she may land up in jail instead must have thrown her thinking faculties off kilter.
A tragic figure Mariam–first being tainted by Captain Safdar, and now having to see the prime ministerial throne being warmed by the adequate behind of Shahid Khaqan Abassi, who should by now himself have been in jail on account of the LNG case, could not have sat well with her. But as I said earlier, life is sometimes so unfair.
But this miracle has only just begun. Will it run its course, be reversed, or sink into a morass depends on the President, the Chief Justice, and the Army Chief. The fate of Pakistan has merely received a breather. The country has not yet been rescued. Those who had despoiled the country and robbed it of all that was decent and hopeful about it, are openly planning to destabilize it, and to push it back to the edge. The unctuous and sniveling thief now occupying the prime ministerial chair, is a thief who concedes primacy in larceny only to Nawaz Sharif, Zardari, and Ishaq Dar. He takes his brief from the chief crook of Pakistan. This is not a good sign. God has come to our aid in the form of a miracle. He did this earlier as well, when He gave us a country. But we made a hash of that gift. Are we slated to do any better now?
As far as the human eye can determine, our fate lies in the hands of the President, the C.J, and the Army Chief. The latter two must strengthen the President and assure him support, so that he is not brow beaten into resigning. And once he is made to feel entirely secure, the three should monitor the drift of the situation. If need be an emergency should be declared, and a national government formed to clear the decks, save the country from the chaos being cooked up in Murree, and elections be held in a year’s time.
If courageous and timely action is taken right now, the country can be saved. This does not have to be essentially true six months from now.