Divorced from reality?
There was nothing new, really, in Nawaz Sharif’s much anticipated press conference. And despite making more or less the same speech since the GT Road long drive, he still needed a printed copy to read from. The only non-scripted part, seemingly, was his disappointment at the mishandling of a reporter earlier that day, and instructions to Talal Chaudhry to look into the matter personally. But that, too, begs questions about himself as well as Chaudhry. Why is he giving orders to a government minister, for one? And does the state minister for interior take orders from a disqualified PM, for another?
But then neither Nawaz nor PML-N has really accepted his disqualification; hence the near 60-car entourage for his arrival, senior ministers making presentations at Punjab House, etc. And he’s clearly staked his future on a head-on collision between crucial institutions, with a particular focus on discrediting the superior judiciary. He’s increasingly posturing on the lines that “I was going to be disqualified anyway,” and that the judges have all the while been hands in glove with the ‘establishment’, which just wants him gone. He also seems to believe, or wants to be seen believing, that he was shown the door through an elaborate conspiracy to halt Pakistan’s democratic and economic progress.
In adopting this strategy, Nawaz is beginning to betray a deepening divorce from reality on a number of counts. One, no conspiracy, real or imagined, would have unseated him if he had not hidden his assets. Two, how could some institution compromise democratic and economic growth by chucking Nawaz out yet leaving the PML-N government in place? Is he really implying that the ministries have stopped working because he is no longer PM? And three, the rosy economy, too, stretches the imagination more than a little. Sure, we are not three weeks from default, but the economy is really not something to write home about. Debt has increased astronomically, trade has slumped and the deficit has gone through the roof. Nawaz’s defiance might have political advantages, but he should not forget that he’s in a very difficult position, and his chest thumping only pushes him deeper into a dark corner.