The good city of Islamabad has seen many a circus in the past decades but none as riveting as the one surrounding the JIT tasked to fret out a shred of evidence that the Godfather has any money trail to show for all his wealth abroad. So far, if one was to believe all the talking heads on TV, none has been forthcoming. Little is one surprised with that bit of news. As, if there was a money trail that could prove the Godfather’s legitimate wealth, it would have been produced in front of the five Judge bench? So then what is all the Hullaballo about ?
Lets go back a few decades, the nation was under Martial’s Law and the soldier of Islam, General Zia ul Haq was the head honcho ruling the country. As with every dictator everywhere, sooner rather than later, they feel the need to justify their seat by bringing a convoluted democracy as a PR face of their regime. So did Zia feel the same pangs of hunger for a civilian facade to his ruthless regime. One good general with the name of Jilani was the carrier of the whip in Punjab. A businessman by the name of Mian Sharif somehow got close enough to the General and ended up building him a posh bungalow. Jilani asked Mian Sharif to let him bring one of his son’s into the political landscape, thus Nawaz Sharif was introduced into the Punjab government as a Minister of Excise. Thus came into being the House of Sharif.
This young man from Model Town, known for laying the rubber on the streets of Model Town in his car, always wearing a red shirt, suddenly was being pampered by the babu’s of the provincial capital, as the babus always know who is the chosen one. From there this precocious young man ended up becoming the Chief Minister and a few machinations later, he was to be crowned the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Thus the sampling that was planted in a flowerpot of the Army had sprung itself to full bloom and the love affair of the boots with this plant took hold of the reigns of the country.
Since he was the favourite child of those who pulled the strings, a political dynasty was launched which had no checks or balances on its power. The loot and plunder of the national exchequer was undertaken as if there was to be no tomorrow. Then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, having endured the goings on of the this ‘out of control’ lad, sacked him on charges of corruption, but alas the President had not understood the cleverness that embodied this person. Nawaz Sharif went ahead and influenced the judges of the Highest Judiciary and had himself reinstated as the Prime Minister in short order.
A couple of years later, Nawaz was again the Prime Minister, and again his government was being challenged for looting the exchequer, but again the Judges of the Highest Judiciary bailed their benefactor out, even going to the extent of passing a judicial order against their own Chief Justice in what is termed in history, as the ‘Murder of Justice” on the Constitution Avenue. Having tamed the judges, Nawaz Sharif had been trying to tame the Generals too, who by then had gotten fed up with his party’s corrupt ways. One General passed away after suffering a heart attack and another simply walked away from the confrontation in disgust. But power corrupts and blinds the one wielding it. Once too often the man from Model Town tried his luck but this time the Army was on its toes and threw him in jail, from where he begged his friends in Saudi Arabia to bail him out into exile for ten years. How he got back into power and how his friends in the establishment made it possible is another long story, but let us get back to the circus.
Cricketer turned philanthropist turned politician, Imran Khan, took up the baton to crush the looters and plunderers and aimed his strike at Nawaz, as he saw him as the Head of the Mafia ruling the country. Finally he has gotten the attention of the vast majority of the population demanding the accountability of the House of Sharif and the Judges acted upon their good fences for once and took up the trial of Nawaz. Having dodged his answers to this court and bought himself slight relief of a few weeks, he and his family now faces the JIT. Soon to be hauled in front of this body, he has ordered a full blast attack by his minions on the JIT and its members. Nihal Hashmi saw himself going much too far in his oratory and ended up threatening the very lives of these members of the JIT and the Judges of the Supreme Court and their children. He shall now face the wrath of the Judges, though Nawaz Sharif is in an eye wash measure has thrown him out of the party and Senatorship.
But the circus does not comprise just one artist. Every day, the nominated horde of Ministers and Advisers can be seen and heard spitting venom against the Judiciary and warnings of dire consequences if their Godfather is found guilty and punished. The Godfather pretends as if he is not to blame for the racket being created in his favour. Let there be no doubt that every single action on his behalf is being done at his orders. The noose seems to be getting tighter and the more it tightens, the more are the screams of threats from PML-N minions. But the sircus must go on for a bit longer before the curtain is pulled on the three decades long misrule of the Godfather and the House of Sharif, just as the Ringling Brothers Circus is folding its tents after over a hundred years.
One last bit of the puzzle that needs to be unravelled is why General Bajwa succumbed to Nawaz Sahrif on the Dawn Leaks issue, an issue of the greatest threat to National Security? Did Jindal deliver to Nawaz some incriminating evidence against our General/Generals, just as Vajpayee delivered copies of telephonic conversations of our Generals to Nawaz almost a couple of decades ago. Did Nawaz blackmail the COAS with this evidence and the Chief withdrew the ISPR tweet? If that is the case, as the rumours continue to point out, then is Nawaz not using the same information to pressurise the Generals to influence the Supreme Court and the JIT to give him another clean chit? The wait is on and so is the load shedding. God Bless Pakistan.