The PM’s audience is waiting
Nawaz Sharif has been conveyed the army’s message that the protracted controversy over Panama Papers investigation was affecting governance and national security and the issue has to be brought to a close at the earliest. The army has ensured that its view is made public through the media. This was presumably needed after the government spokespersons continued to deny that the issue of Panama Papers investigation had been raised during the prime minister’s meeting with Gen Raheel Sharif. What the message implies is that any delay in resolving the issue would be unhelpful. It remains to be seen how the government reacts to the message.
Despite a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, the government is much more isolated now than it was in August 2014 on account of its policies. The entire opposition wants Nawaz Sharif to come clean on the Panama Papers issue. The government’s efforts to browbeat the opposition or divide it have failed. On Friday the opposition doesn’t expect the prime minister to reminisce or ramble – as he tends to do whenever speaking on the issue. It has instead formulated concrete questions regarding the properties acquired or sold by Nawaz Sharif and his family from 1985 to 2016, income tax paid during the period, the status of the Mayfair flats and how these were paid for, details of offshore companies owned by the prime minister or his scions, the actual investment made in the companies, their present value and details of any payments made from Pakistan for conducting business abroad. The prime minister is required to give precise answers to the questions put.
Sharif will have to come up with answers seen widely to be satisfactory. It won’t do to maintain, as he has done before, that he would give answers to any queries only before the enquiry commission. He was elected prime minister by the National Assembly and it is widely understood that he remains accountable to it.