MIAN Nawaz Sharif has alleged, what has been making the rounds in the political and social circles of the country for some days, that Law Minister Babar Awan is on a mission to influence lawyers, through the doling out of a huge sum of money, to shift their loyalties from Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to the government. He accused Mr Awan of distributing Rs 90 million among the bar associations of southern Punjab and Balochistan to create a lobby against the Chief Justice. The ruling leadership is in open defiance of the Supreme Court; however, pressure is building on it to implement its judgements, howsoever unpalatable they might be. It is to turn the pliable section of the legal community into a counterweight to the judiciary, in case a crisis situation emerges, that this unethical step is being taken by Mr Babar Awan. The PML-N leader, who was addressing party workers at the residence of Khwaja Muhammad Safdar at Sialkot on Saturday, threatened, "if the government fails to do so (implement the court decisions), we will force it to capitulate to the judiciary." To convince the public that he meant business, he rejected the epithet of a 'friendly opposition' being applied by critics to the PML-N. As a proof of the PML-N being a political party operating in a manner befitting its role as the main Opposition, he cited its part in the movement to restore the deposed judges. However, the PML-N must realise that a lot more needs to be done by it before the assertion of its top leader Mian Nawaz goes down well with the people, who feel badly let down by the government as well as the opposition in addressing the issues vital to their existence: spiralling inflation, joblessness, corruption and many more. Unless the PML-N actively advocates these public causes, it would find its popularity shrinking away, as the recent bye-election has shown, even though its candidate comfortably came home. Mian Nawaz also expressed his frustration at the government for not doing anything to bring former President Pervez Musharraf to book and accused it of giving him a safe and honourable exit under an understanding of which his party had been left in the dark. He rightly felt strongly about the need for Musharraf's trial to forestall the possibility of another martial law. But would the judiciary take suo moto notice of violation of the Constitution that dictator Musharraf had blatantly done, as Mian Nawaz Sharif has demanded, or the government files a suit against him, only time will tell.