Pakistani people are the real victims of the Panama Leaks

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    Leaders’ fortunes, people’s loss

    The Panama leaks have left the  Pakistani prime minister in deep  waters. For the last week Nawaz  Sharif has been under fire for  allegedly investing millions of  dollars in various offshore companies in an  apparent attempt to avoid taxes. According to  these leaks, the family of Prime Minister Sharif  has made millions of dollars investments in  a number of offshore companies.

    A day after the leaks, Sharif addressed  the nation and vowed to take appropriate  legal steps while denying that any of his  family members had made money illegally.  These revelations were hardly a surprise for  anyone as the Sharif family’s corruption and  money laundering tales have been an open  secret for many years. The Independent in  1998 published an article which noted that,  “The investigation into Mr Sharif and his  family was originally commissioned in 1993  by an interim government, after Mr Sharif’s  dismissal as prime minister, which asked  the agency to investigate 13 separate  allegations of corruption and money  laundering through overseas bank accounts.”

    Prime Minister Sharif’s son, hassan  Nawaz, during an interview given to the BBC  in 1999 – which has surfaced again – failed  to explain the ownership of the flat which he  was living in: “I’m just like any other student  living with his parents. I don’t necessarily  have to know the facts and who owns the  flat, and who pays for the rent and who pays for my living.” However, recently hassan  Nawaz admitted having owned those  properties: “Those apartments are ours and  those offshore companies are also ours.”

    These revelations have put Sharif in a  difficult situation: unlike any previous  challenge which by and large was mounted  by a single party, the current situation has  pooled together number of opposition  parties. Besides the PTI, PPP and Jamaat-e- Islami have also come out with guns blazing.

    However, the dilemma is that not a  single opposition party is interested in seeing  an end to these allegations: all opposition  parties have joined hands not because they  are genuinely interested in seeing an end to  this crisis rather because all of them stand  to gain something from this crisis.

    If any of the opposition parties wanted  to scrutinise Sharif’s sources of wealth or  any other member of his family, they should  have done it a long time ago. But the  unfortunate fact is that not a single party  has the courage, credibility, commitment or  political will to take that path.

    With this crisis, Imran Khan – who has  proved to be an opportunist – sees another  chance of derailing democracy; this time  with a sit-in in Lahore rather than  Islamabad. Moreover, PTI is interested in making some inroads in Punjab by  thrashing the PML-N’s credibility.

    Asif Ali Zardari is also out to negotiate  his place in Sindh affairs by mounting  pressure on Nawaz Sharif. Zardari’s political  party has been sidelined in Sindh since the  start of the Karachi Operation. The present  situation gives Zardari a chance to counter  attack the federal government which has  only brushed aside the former’s demands.  Furthermore, the PPP is also interested in  reviving its lost political capital in Punjab.  The party did poorly in the last general  elections in Punjab and has virtually  vanished from the province. By going after  the PML-N in their province, PPP is looking  to appease its old support base who became  disillusioned during the party’s last rule,  which was marred by bad governance and  similar allegations of mega scale corruption.

    The Islamist parties, on the other hand,  are looking to restore their lost space inside  the state. The Sharifs, in the last two years,  have taken some progressive legislative steps  that have earned them considerable ire of  Islamist parties. The latest case in this regard  is the Women Protect Act. While the Islamist  parties do not have much presence inside the  parliament, their power and ability to  paralyse the government by mobilising their street power cannot be ruled out. A week  ago, the protests celebrating Qadri in  Islamabad demonstrated this bitter reality.  With this crisis, the Islamist parties are likely  to pressure the government into rolling back  on this crucial legislation.

    The current state of democracy in  Pakistan is in tatters. Prime Minister  Sharif’s credibility has declined sharply after  these revelations and seemingly whatever  legitimacy he had before this crisis, has  faded away. These disclosures will further  limit Nawaz Sharif’s say in issues related to  national security vis-à-vis the military.

    Heads of almost all political parties in  Pakistan have, at one point or the other,  remained complicit in corruption, if not  economically then morally and ethically. It’s  ironic how these leaders, with flags of this  very country branded on their chests, tell  lies to millions of people and present  themselves as saviours of this nation. All  they have been doing is securing their own  futures at the cost of millions of people.