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Former Pakistani Prime Minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif and his son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were sentenced to imprisonment for improper possession of certain properties in the United Kingdom. On July 13, Nawaz and Maryam returned to Pakistan and were immediately sent to prison.
The case against the Sharifs is curious, where the National Liability Office of Pakistan (NAB) has not been able to prove corruption or corruption. family, while the defendants were unable to convincingly show the trail linking property ownership to the source of funds used for their purchase. The court based its decision on the presumption that the incapacity or reluctance of the accused proved in one way or another that the production of such materials would have harmed their cause.
ALSO READ: Dirty toilet for Nawaz Sharif, deprived of bed in prison 19659004] Despite the potential siphoning of money from Pakistan to the UK in the 1990s by the Sharifs, the conduct of the The case was a blatant political victimization. Those who have followed the political trajectory of Sharif and Pakistan over the last 30 years know that the leader of the PML started as the protege of the military dictator Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s. While his family already had a As a well-established business, their fortunes increased exponentially after they came to power, first in Punjab province and then in the central office.
It is common knowledge that the former prime minister and / or family has held properties in London since the days when it was tight with Pakistan's military establishment. What is now clear is that as long as we remain in conflict with the powerful army of the country, we are untouchable. But as soon as we fall out of favor or disagree with the army, we find ourselves nailed for crimes that we may or may not have committed
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Sharif is not being punished for possessing property beyond his means, but for having exceeded what the army thinks is his political weight by taking it directly. His original sin did not amass a fortune, but questioned the political fortunes of the army, which he did first in 1999 by sacking the adventurous general Pervez Musharraf and then pursuing for treason against him in 2013 for his 1999 putsch.
After the Sharif government chose to bring in the former dictator, it became clear that the army would not only do so at every step, but that she would actively hunt him down. The army thought that Sharif was their underling became too big for his shoes and had threatened to make public an investigation report on the Kargil debacle and had gone over their heads to repair the barriers with India. The Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate (ISI) of the military first orchestrated a political upheaval against Sharif in 2014 and brought together politician Imran Khan and religious zealots led by religious leader Tamir-ul- Qadri to besiege the federal capital in an effort to overthrow the government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on the pretext of rigging elections – a year after the 2013 elections. At the time, the others Opposition parties sided with the PML-N and the offer of the Imran-Qadri army was thwarted.
ALSO READ: Chronology of the main events leading to the arrest of Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan
A lucky chance for the army helped by the release of so-called Panama Papers. The children of the former prime minister were named in the information disclosed for holding offshore companies to run their businesses and properties, but he himself was not mentioned. The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP), which ended due process, became a court of first instance and seized the Panama Papers against Sharif. By reversing the legal system, the SCP therefore denied Sharif his constitutional right to progressive appeals from the lower courts.
Behind the Law, a Military Witch Hunt
Despite his aggressive witch hunt, the SCP found no evidence of wrongdoing but nonetheless nailed Sharif on a false accusation not to declare his income potential. However, what the SCP had done, in all likelihood on a military nod, was to stack the legal game against Sharif. A year ago, the SCP declared him guilty of dishonesty and therefore unable to perform a public function. The case was then referred to the Court of Justice, with the SCP granting the role of guardian of the lower court.
Anyone familiar with the Pakistani justice system knows very well that the chances of a lower court go against the verdict of the highest court. from the earth, are thin to none. The NAB verdict, therefore, was run in advance. The history of the country shows that anyone who opposed a military regime or diktat was subjected to terrible persecution and persecution while the military and their civilian collaborators remained in the country.
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Pakistan's first law designed to nail political opponents was the Public Disqualification Act (PRODA) of 1949 While some politicians were falling under this blow, the country's first military dictator, Field, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who promulgated the Elimination of Elective Corps (EBDO) in August 1959. Dozens of Opposition leaders were prevented from participating in political activities for eight years under this order. The first politician to obtain "EBDO", as the Pakistani press of the time called him, was the Bengali leader Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
Suhrawardy, like Sharif, had played with the civil-military bureaucracy and occupied ministerial positions, but came to the same conclusion that civilian supremacy is the key to keeping Pakistan at peace with itself and its neighbors. Unlike Sharif, Suhrawardy was an eloquent speaker and a seasoned lawyer. In an article for Foreign Affairs, he had set out his vision of a democratic Pakistan as a nation-state, which would become "big enough and strong enough to encompass all its citizens, whatever their faith, on the basis of true civic equality ".
This vision was in stark contrast to the army's plan for Pakistan, formally declared by dictator Ayub Khan in the same publication. The army under Ayub Khan saw Pakistan as a conflicting ideological state inside – against religious and ethnic minorities – and at war without, against India. Incompatible views on either side of the civil-military division have persisted ever since. Even the prime ministers elected tried to override the army, while the second overthrew each of them directly or with the help of justice and / or bureaucracy. civil. No Prime Minister has completed his term in Pakistan, ever! Sharif, who is very economical in words, had tried to put into practice what Suhrawardy so eloquently said. And that was enough for him to win the wrath of the army.
Employees do nothing
What makes this so-called responsibility particularly unbalanced, it is that none of the generals of the army, their descendants and their quislings . have never had to book for financial or political corruption. Take, for example, the case of Ayub Khan. His father was a major risaldar – a junior officer (JCO) of the British Indian Army – with derisory landholdings – but his children are some of the richest in Pakistan.
Another father of military dictator Zia-ul-Haq was a superintendent of the British army in Delhi, while his children are also part of the elite today. The director general of the ISI, Akhtar Abdur Rahman, who, along with Zia, plunged Pakistan into the jihadist quagmire against the Soviet Union, was of modest origin. His children today have large trading houses in Pakistan
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Similarly, politicians like the same. Former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain – whose father was formerly a police officer – and who himself was involved in a cooperative banking scam in the 1990s, remained unscathed through continued collaboration with the military. The brothers of the former army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani were involved in land fraud; More recently, army officers such as Brigadier General Asad Shahzada, General Obaidullah Khattak and General Ejaz Shahid were released after being punched despite smuggling and looting. extortion in the troubled province of Baluchistan. . The point is not that people can not get up and break the class barriers, but the road of all the military went through the high function.
The simple question is that no Pakistani is opposed to liability if it is transparent and in all areas, but there can be no criterion for the army and its collaborators and another for those who oppose the political role of the army.
Emboldened by past successes
able to cope with each of his declared martial laws and undeclared coups d'etat, it is She has never been officially beaten in a civil-military political stalemate. There was a massive political campaign against the first dictator Ayub Khan, but he was only ousted after being sick and forced to resign by the second dictator, General Yahya Khan.
Yahya Khan presided The East Pakistan debacle was, however, abandoned only after a rather modest but nominal transition of power to civilians. The third dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, was destroyed in the air by unknown forces and, despite a decade-long Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), the transition to civilian rule Only after his death [19659003] ALSO READ: Nawaz Sharif: To be the pledge of the establishment to become its victim
Similarly, the fourth military dictator Pervez Musharraf was forced to resign by a protest movement but not without receiving a last guard of honor! Although civilians and the army clashed several times, the former did not manage to bring down the last in the power of the street, to report by the parliament and to the government. formally accuse the judiciary
. the latter approach, but failed as roping in the army requires the three maneuvers in tandem and concert. He mobilized the street after the fact and never used the Parliament as a way to reduce the unconstitutional interventions of the army in the pursuit of political power. The army, on the other hand, managed to retain its Praetorian powers both by brute force and by playing politicians against each other.
Street corner elections
This month, Nawaz Sharif and his party are severely maimed by the NAB verdict. While the battle lines are already drawn and that few voters, at the very least, would change at this point, the military has been working excessively to smother the media conventional and social and force Sharif's loyalist candidates to change sides
. gnawed on Sharif's religiously conservative support base or sought to neutralize it by introducing all the nuances of religious zealots, ranging from Barelvi fanatics to Deobandi sectarian terrorists to the Jamat-ud-Dawa transnational jihadists, as political parties legitimate. Nawaz Sharif's main political opponent, Imran Khan, enjoys the tacit support of the army and has benefited immensely from media censorship. This massive political engineering and media management has been going on for months, indicating that the military does not intend to lose this fight. It seems that they wish to see Imran Khan elected to high office, even if it takes maneuvers on election day. Pak court sentences former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for 10 years in corruption cases
In 1988, the military had done its best to keep Benazir Bhutto out of harm's way . a rainbow coalition of right-wing forces, ironically led by Nawaz Sharif. However, they were unable to defeat Bhutto because of his immense popularity and unwavering support base. The difference now is that in 1988, Zia-ul-Haq had just perished in a plane crash and that the army was not as ascending as today. hui.
Benazir was able to run a fair election campaign, attracting massive crowds. Despite the verdict, Sharif remains very popular, especially in his Punjab base. His return to Lahore has the potential to throw a huge slap into the work of the army.
Part of the calculation of the army was that Sharif and his daughter, who is quite outspoken in his criticism of the "invisible forces manipulating things in Pakistan. years, "would remain distant after such a damning verdict.) Sharif and Maryam Nawaz have the ability to boost their electoral base and boost momentum for the July 25 elections.However, the military judicial complex will do its best to impede them. There is a faction of the PML-N, headed by Sharif's younger brother, Shehbaz, who wants to repair the barriers with the army and for this purpose wants to keep the father-daughter duo out of the country and out of politics , at least until elections
An electoral victory is a prerequisite for Sharif's legal and political rehabilitation.If Sharif and Maryam Nawaz can overcome the party's internal challenges, get a bail from a court higher and back on the elections / protest march, they might be able to give the army a run for its money.
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