Maryam’s story of a level playing field and an equally balanced panel of justice for her family and her party is achieving milestone after milestone. She first accomplished the impossible by uniting all opposition parties on the PDM platform, resulting in a formidable force opposing Imran Khan’s seemingly all-powerful government, a government that had the impression, albeit incorrectly, that it had the support of the establishment and was gleefully harping the mantra of being on the same page.
Because of the establishment’s perceived support and a reasonably growing economy, Imran had the false impression that all was well, not knowing that the establishment had launched a different game plan, which was still on the table but with a different partner. Because of his inability to deal with establishment and read between the lines, Imran Khan believed he was still standing on solid ground while the sand had already drifted from beneath his feet.
When he was firmly pushed against the wall, he attempted to salvage what was left and dissolved the national assembly in desperation, declaring a general election within 90 days, but the court quashed and reversed all his orders and directed the parliament not to prorogue its session until the process of vote of no confidence was completed. He lost, and by firmly installing Shahbaz Sharif in his place, Maryam achieved her two goals: to depose Imran and install the PML(N) in the government. Imran finally conceded defeat in the centre, but retained control of the Punjab and KP provinces. Maryam trumped him once more by luring him to dissolve both assemblies with the promise of holding an early election, and once he did, he lost both governments and the election date, giving Maryam her third victory in a row.
Her most important and close to her heart stated objective was to imprison Imran Khan, as he had done to her father, to her, to his uncle Mr. Shahaz Sharif, and to the majority of the PML(N) leadership. Maryam led the government, Establishment and the Director General, NAB to meticulously and flawlessly develop the strategy and plan covering all legal and procedural aspects in complete secrecy and deftly orchestrated his arrest, which even on the date of his arrest appeared impossible.
Factoring in lessons learned from the earlier failed arrest attempts, the Al Qadir Trust case was dug up, vital information was gathered, along with documentary evidence, and distributed to a select group of media members. Secretly and quietly, the NAB issued an arrest warrant a week in advance. Rangers were tasked with planning his arrest in the High Court Premise at a time when he had little or no security cover from his own private security team and with the least amount of aggression and use of force. Once everything was in place, the operation was meticulously and seamlessly carried out without any casualties, resistance, or violence.
The chief justice of the high court, who was visibly irritated and shocked by the arrest right under his nose and without his permission, ordered the concerned authorities to explain and if not threatened them with dire consequences, but later caved in and ended up legalizing the arrest regardless of its legal standing, while simultaneously initiating contempt of court proceedings against the authorities involved in the operation.
End justify the means, notwithstanding the allegations of trampling of the constitution or rule of law the fact remains that Imran Khan is in the Jail. A Court specially held a session today (10th May) in the Police Line ignored Imran Khan’s defence and granted 8 days physical remand to the police, and now he will dance to the same tune as Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, and Maryam Nawaz when they were put behind bars. Imran Khan’s and his party’s future looks bleak, especially after his arrest.
The government’s next step will be to arrest as many top leaders of the PTI as possible in order to deprive the workers of strategies and plans to organize demonstrations and agitations. Brute state power will be used to quell any resistance by the demonstrators, and eventually the fatigue will set in, the business will resume normal operations, and the vulnerable courts and judges will realize the direction of the wind and will be lined up as in the past to render decisions which will be termed as being taken in the greater interest of the country and outcome is that Maryam Nawaz had accomplished her most important and close to her heart objective to put Imran Khan behind bars, weaken him and his party and went one step closer to achieve the objective to equal both sides of the justice balance.
Her next goal was to hold Punjab Assembly elections in October, along with general elections. She fought tooth and nail against the Supreme Court’s order to hold elections for the Punjab and KP Assemblies within 90 days of the dissolution. In one of her public addresses, she dared the court to do whatever it wanted and could do, but elections for the Punjab assembly would not be held within 90 days. She vowed that elections for national and provincial assemblies would be held on the same date in October 2023. To that end, she rallied all PDM parties to pursue her narrative in public meetings and during their interactions in the media. She was successful in creating a deep schism among Supreme Court judges and their controversies in their decisions, which provided much needed fuel for her and her cohorts to attack and soften the Supreme Court.
The weakened and divided Supreme Court emboldened stakeholders, including the government and the Election Commission, to defy all Supreme Court orders. In total defiance, the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan refused to provide Rs. 20 billion to the election commission, and the Ministry of Defence refused to provide security on the grounds that they are deeply involved in anti-terrorist and anti-state operations and thus cannot provide security during elections.
In various sessions specially timed and conducted to launch an assault on the superior judiciary, the legislatures defied the supreme court and refused to endorse the provision of funds, thereby shifting the burden of contempt of court proceedings from the government. It is already the 10th of May, and there is no indication that the election will be held on the 14th. Now the government and powerful stakeholders will have a genuine and irrefutable pretext of worsening the law and order situation that had emerged as a result of Imran’s arrest to postpone the elections in October or even later.
End justifies the means, the reality is that Maryam succeeded in achieving her objective to defy supreme court decision and postpone the elections, buy time to eliminate Imran Khan physically or legally from the active seen, use budget to provide relief to the masses, and hold elections only when PML(N) is fully ready, confident and in a position of strength to ensure a massive victory.
Maryam’s other crucial objective was to have all NAB cases against her family dismissed. The Accountability Law was accordingly amended and softened by specifically excluding and including appropriate provisions and by changing the Director General of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NAB) in order to create all favourable conditions necessary for the dismissal of all cases of financial corruption, misappropriation of funds, money laundering, and misuse of public funds.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was exonerated as a result of the annulment of the sentence handed down by an accountability court in the Avenfield case. Maryam Nawaz was acquitted from the award of a sentence of seven years in prison and a £2 million fine by an accountability court, along with her husband, who was sentenced to one year in prison. In the Rs16 billion money laundering case, Suleman Shehbaz, the son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was exonerated. Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza were declared “innocent” in a case of money laundering following a reinvestigation by the FIA. Without getting into the nitty-gritty, it remains a fact that Maryam Nawaz achieved her goal. Now it appears that she has two goals remaining to complete her mission to bring back Nawaz Sharif, lift a time ban on him and win the forthcoming general elections.
She has indeed made an impressive progress to bring Nawaz Sharif back to the country honorably and exonerated by enacting the Nawaz Sharif specific Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Bill, 2023 to allow him to appeal against his conviction and receive a clean bill so that he could lead his party in the next general elections. Her strategy is clear to increase political pressure on the supreme court, dividing the court to the point where it would have had no choice but to clear Nawaz Sharif of all charges.
The weakened, divided, softened and intimidated supreme court though has suspended the operation of the Act but, the event of yesterday (9th May) and (10th May), arrest of Imran Khan, caving in of Islamabad High Court, physical remand of Imran Khan granted to Police, the severe reaction of ISPR against vandalization of Army establishment and properties, calling of army to take over, Islamabad, KP and Punjab, changing the head of FC will strengthen the government and establishment and correspondingly weaken the PTI and supreme court to a point where it would have no choice but to restore the impugned act and allow Nawaz Sharif to appeal and secure relief and lead the party to next general elections. It seems that Maryam has tied and linked the holding of general elections with the return of Nawaz Sharif and therefore the date of election will accordingly be adjusted and if need be even later than october. It seems only a matter of time that Maryam would succeed in the second last objective.
The last but not the least objective is to win the elections by pursuing a comprehensive strategy, exonerate Nawaz Sharif from all charges, lift lifetime ban from him enabling him to take part in politics, reinvigorate the party, eliminate politically or legally Imran Khan, weaken PTI to a point where it will not be in a position to make any sizable win in elections, improve economy, use upcoming budget to provide relief to salary class and vulnerable segment of the society, launch well coordinated election campaign and finally succeed in winning the elections and assuming the slot of prime minister for herself by replacing the aging Nawaz or Shahbaz. With her proven track record, it is only a matter of time that Maryam will succeed in all her missions and objectives. (Edited by Khadijah Kamili)
Opinions in this piece are based on personal observations of the writer.
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