Going it alone
The PML-N could have used the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the Panama investigation – if it really had nothing to hide – to strengthen itself and the parliamentary system it otherwise never tires of defending. By choosing a route disagreeable to the opposition, it risks diluting the investigation and pushing itself deeper into a dark political corner. The ruling party should have taken a hint when five retired SC judges refused to head the investigation. Now, by going for Justice Osmany – whose wife has already vouched for his desire to join the party – it has stripped the investigation of impartiality before it has taken off.
And if the kitchen cabinet did not factor in the opposition leveraging this particular point, its due diligence has already proved too faulty for such a sensitive case. They have already put a number of contradictions on record – especially Hussain Nawaz’s many statements – by reacting in confusion. And nobody was impressed by the prime minister’s speech, which didn’t even come close to answering the questions that matter – where did the money for the offshore companies come from, why were certain disclosures never made, etc?
Unfortunately for PML-N, this is not the kind of threat to their rule they are used to facing. The source, for once, is not endogenous but exogenous. It cannot wriggle out of this one by implying another threat to democracy. It would be better to take to Parliament, and take the opposition on board every step of the way, instead of going it alone. That is especially true since the investigation, by Justice Osmany or the serving judge, will for sure involve a forensic audit at some point in time. That is when it becomes near impossible to hide the number trail. And if, like it says, PML-N is clean, why give the opposition unnecessary fodder, especially when the resulting political paralysis will prove more costly for the people than the politicians?