- Nawaz Sharif in NAB custody
The PTI has been used to launching noisy public protests to hold those in power accountable. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, the party leadership is acting like a cat on a hot tin roof. Currently the government is feeling uneasy about Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Freedom March, which is likely to be joined by traders, lawyers, seminary students and workers of several opposition parties. With the JUI-F leadership keeping its cards close to the chest, the government has become all the more jittery. After failing to dissuade the party from launching the protest through threats, it is taking recourse to other methods that are highly objectionable. A newspaper report suggests that an influential Gulf state has been approached by the government to persuade the Maulana to call off his march. In case there is any truth in the report, inviting a foreign country to interfere in the country’s politics can have dangerous ramifications.
The government is particularly apprehensive of the PPP and PML-N joining hands with the JUI-F. The PPP has maintained an element of ambivalence by maintaining that while the party is against changes of government through sit-ins, it could reverse its position if the government failed to put the brakes on actions that violate democratic principles.
A worrisome unknown for the PTI government was the position of the PML-N regarding the Freedom March. While the PML-N was still discussing whether it should fully participate
in the march or extend it only symbolic support, former PM Nawaz Sharif came openly in support of the JUI-F’s move. The next day NAB initiated a new enquiry against Mr Sharif and got his physical remand for two weeks from an accountability court. It is believed that the immediate reason for taking him from the judicial lock up to NAB’s custody was to deprive the former PM of the opportunity to provide further support to the JUI-F’s agitation. For many this was also an act of political vengeance. For the same reason former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s sons were summoned by NAB and told to get their statements recorded in the LNG case despite being too young to be involved the affair.