Prolonging the crisis

And wasting time

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faces the biggest challenge of his political career since 1999. He has been required by the opposition to do two things. First, to reveal the money trail used to set up offshore companies owned by son Husain Nawaz and daughter Mariam Safdar. Second, to answer questions regarding his wealth, its sources and the taxes paid on it. With the media houses competing with one another in extracting the latest information on the two issues, new facts are emerging regarding the Sharif family’s real financial worth, taxes paid and the way assets and liabilities were reported in the statement presented to the Election Commission.

Nawaz Sharif’s address prepared under the supervision of Ch Nisar – who is known more for building walls rather than constructing bridges – has produced predictable results. Nawaz Sharif once again dwelt on the theme of the Sharif’s family’s hard struggle rewarded duly by Allah plus deadly barbs targeting the opposition – particularly the PTI and its leader. The speech sufficiently incensed the opposition which decided to walk out soon after. The opposition had earlier decided to listen to the PM peacefully and then jointly formulate its response. Some of the information given by the PM about his London flats and the factory in Dubai in fact added more to questions instead of answering those being already asked.

That the crisis has been prolonged is no good omen for the government. With the Panama Papers issue taking centre stage since early April, the fight against terrorism has taken a back seat. The federal and Punjab governments are fully involved in countering the opposition’s propaganda forgetting everything else. During the sufficiently long address there was only a brief reference to the formation of a joint parliamentary committee to finalize ToRs but nothing was said about fresh legislation to create a powerful judicial commission. If the government is neither willing to give answer to the opposition’s 7 questions nor display seriousness in forming a powerful commission, this can only prolong the crisis.