Two days to go

It is an open and shut case. But thanks to the system of fakery underpinning governance in this country over the years, this case of fraud and fleece has been turned into a high political drama.

And with each succeeding scene this drama is turning into a world class whodunit without even those clues that had pointed towards the suspects.

The tear-jerkers that were being enacted outside the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) building by the main characters of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family who responded to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) summons were hardly convincing.

Compared to the sufferings of the Bhutto family those that the Sharif family claims it has been subjected to, once by ZAB and then by Musharraf appear more like a royal bother. So, attempts at painting themselves as victims of some diabolical elements are seen by the audience as nothing more than hamming.

While one cannot question the entertainment value of these performances, one has detected a palpable sense of panic running through the façade of bravado they are trying to put across.

Imran Khan, the tormentor-in-chief of the PM and his family, sounds more genuine with each succeeding performance. His deliveries are deadly. His field is attacking. He is relentless. And he is ruthless with his counter-attacks.

Between the two — the first family and Imran — they have propelled sky high the credibility of the six-member JIT. The first family by attacking the integrity of the JIT members and depicting them as tools in some hidden hands out to destroy democracy in Pakistan has placed the team on a high moral pedestal in the eyes of the general public. And Imran by interpreting these attacks of the first family on the JIT as a reaction of a cornered criminal who has failed to buy off the law seems to be doubly endorsing the integrity of the team members.

The JIT has kept a very tight lid over what it has so far succeeded in unearthing with regard to the money trail leading to the funds used to purchase the London flats that the PM’s sons claim belong to them. Interestingly even those who spoke to the media after each of their appearances seem to have warded off all attempts by the media to know what were the questions they were asked and what were their answers. The interaction with the media after each session of interrogation has been used by the first family members and subsequently by their supporting hecklers to question the integrity of the JIT members, indulge in sob stories of victimhood and speculate about the dangers to democracy posed by their on-going accountability.

The riveting drama has been so engrossing that most had forgotten the demand that the PM should resign from his office before accountability fearing otherwise a sitting PM would not be averse to use all kinds of temptations to buy off the investigators.

Indeed, the integrity of the JIT has soared so high, meanwhile, thanks to both the first family and Imran that nobody seems to have realised the theatrical incongruity of the drama of a sitting PM being subjected to investigation by his own subordinates.

Without meaning to question the integrity of the JIT, one would like to mention that at least four of the six members are beholden to the sitting government for their postings and promotions. And in the new civil-military paradigm, the ISI and the MI brigadiers on the team also seem to have their tasks cut out for them.

And one should also keep in mind that the PM’s name does not appear in the Panama Papers. And none of his three children are public office holders with two of them non-resident Pakistanis whose money matters fall within the jurisdiction of the UK. Meanwhile, the JIT has the simple job of proving that the London flats were purchased by the family with laundered Pakistani money accumulated through tax evasion, commissions and kickbacks.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2017.

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