70 years and what have we learnt from them?

That we’re still not learning – and that the Panama verdict may be no different

“Nawaz Shareef, his children and their lawyers gave the impression of playing a game of puzzles with the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

For any authoritarian strongman, a lesson of history is that you can’t do it by yourself. To accumulate power and vanquish your opponents, you need powerful elements of the state, such as the police, the armed forces, the senior establishment, certain politicians, and the judiciary, to go along with your designs, or at least to stand aside as you do as you wish.

In some cases, such as Weimar’s Germany and Vittorio Emmanuel III’s Italy, many people in positions of influence were willing to support an authoritarian upstart because their commitment to democracy was weak or nonexistent to begin with. In other cases, such as Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey, elected leaders exploited threats of terrorism and domestic chaos to justify the curtailment of political rights and the harassment of political opponents.

In the mean time, the emergence of Panama Papers seems to flash open the working, veiled system and capability of our organisations which are considered highly respectable, reputable and sensitive.

Nawaz Shareef may have thought the resignation of his Information Minister, Pervez Rashid, would end the controversy over his involvement with Panama Leaks and Dawn Leaks, but the derogatory revelations keep coming. The whole fiasco accentuate the treachery and dishonesty of his family as well his own. Over and above, his lawyers were ill prepared to protect.

It’s unlikely that Nawaz Shareef would have been pushed out when the Supreme Court re-started on his case after a break of 15 days. The Supreme Court told Mr. Salman Akram Raja – the lawyer for his children – that his flip-flap statements seem basically to mislead the court.

“Nawaz Shareef has no task now that is more urgent than putting an experienced assistant or adviser in place who would be able to save him from the present situation – his existing lawyers and advisors have proved to be lying and incompetent, and perhaps worse.”

With the lawyer Salman Akram Raja, judges said that, contrary to his claims, Nawaz Shareef’s lawyer, Mr Makhdoom Ali Khan had discussed and disclosed a different story against the Panama papers.  The discrepancy between what Mr Makhdoom had said and what Mr Salman Raja had stated clearly indicates the ulterior motives of the alleged family. The statements by the prime minister in the parliament are different, the story from his wife is different, and the stories narrated by his three children Maryam Safdar, Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz, are all different. If the court accepts one statement, it means the other is a lie. The court categorically said “either the prime minister or children are telling a lies” which evidently is true and now it can’t be concealed from the public.

Now, there came another missing piece, the Ishaq Dar story, in addition to the story of one prince from Qattar. It’s to confuse the matter or trying to escape the storm of panama papers, is yet to be determined.

But something is still missing, which Imran Khan and the courts had been trying to trace out with all the judges of very high calibre, who are sitting, watching and examining this game of stairs and snakes and trying to come to some conclusion.

Pervez Rashid was a pawn sacrificed, nothing more. Who would believe, that he, as Minister for Information, was not aware of the risk?

There are very simple questions, which have remained unanswered

• Was the money transferred from Pakistan? If so, was it declared and was the tax paid?
• Was the money transferred through hundi? If so, that would mean that it’s illegal money.

• Was the money arranged from abroad? And if so, what is the trail?
• Was it received as commission through some deal?
• How and why are the statements of Ishaq Dar being ignored when they clearly state the illegal transactions by the Shareef family?
• How and why did the Qatari Prince jump in when he himself is pointed out in the Panama Leaks?

All of this puts more pressure on Nawaz Shareef to act. Although Saad Rafiq, Khawaja Asif, Talal Chaudry, Danyal Aziz, Maryam Aurangzeb and others, the nasty, abusive and evil-clowns of Nawaz Sharif have pledged to adopt all means to misguide and threat the superior most court of the country and the general public, the public response over all has been against Nawaz Shareef. Public thinks, his as well his aide’s behaviour is irresponsible. At this highly sensitive state of affair the statement “I think that situation has taken care of itself” by Speaker Sardar Ayyaz, seems extremely over confident.Then there was Khawaja Asif who put partisanship ahead of national security by declaring “it makes no sense” for the courts to investigate, both in Panama Papers as well as in Dawn Leaks.

Of course, Imran Khan pilloried Nawaz Shareef for nearly two years for rigging the polls, using dharnas and public gatherings, a bad decision, that didn’t endanger the premiership of Nawaz Shareef. Panama papers scandal seems disturbing his empire.

Now the public seems intent on helping Imran Khan to oust Nawaz Shareef alleging to hide the truth by refusing to investigate earlier.

Nawaz Shareef has no task now that is more urgent than putting an experienced assistant or adviser in place who would be able to save him from the present situation – his existing lawyers and advisors have proved to be lying and incompetent, and perhaps worse.