The accountability court and Sharifs

• Dealing with shenanigans of the second oldest profession

Three of the accused are currently facing the accountability court, two have failed to respond to the court’s summons and one has got himself hospitalised in London. All are required to justify the fabulous assets acquired abroad that include prime location real estate and lucrative business concerns. The Sharif family have hired well-known counsel to defend them. Each one of the characters is playing out the role assigned to him in a well-thought out strategy worked out with the lawyers help. On the legal front an attempt is afoot to seek combining of the three references being separately heard by the accountability court into one which would make the task of counsel defending the accused easier.

Sensing that there is little chance of acquittal, Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and party loyalists are conducting a hectic campaign to prove that the courts are biased and are likely to sentence the Sharifs under extraneous pressure. As a hedging exercise aimed at saving face in case of another sentence, this time on charges of corruption and money laundering, Nawaz Sharif claims that the courts are in a hurry in his case while they were not so in the case of Imran Khan.

Nawaz Sharif cannot avoid court appearances as he is forced to live in Pakistan to guard another crucial asset, the party, which brought him to power thrice, thus enabling him to acquire the off shore properties. He knows there are others who are covetously eyeing the office of the party president and future PM. Dar has to be kept abroad so that he does not panic and become approver again. The two sons who are wet behind the ears have been told to invoke British citizenship to claim they are not answerable to Pakistan’s courts.

With all the evidence at the disposal of the NAB, and a SC judge watching over the accountability court proceedings, there is little hope of the family getting off the hook. . It would become even more vulnerable if the Supreme Court allows the re-opening the Hudaibiya Paper Mills Case. But Pakistan is a country of surprises that defy logic.