Lifestyle, income and nagging doubt

There was never going to be a clear-cut outcome to the Panama Papers affair, and so it has proved with the release of the report of the JIT that has been probing the assets of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and assorted of his family members stretching back decades. One thing is clear — all of the respondents have been at the very least economical with the truth regarding information which would confirm ‘known sources of income’ which is prima-facie an inability to justify their assets and the means of their income. It is pages 251 and 252 that may be made to add up to a smoking gun, but there are many slips ‘twixt cup and lip and the prime minister has not suffered a mortal wound that would necessitate him stepping down from office or triggering a general election. The JIT is sufficiently concerned about the evident disparities regarding sources of income that it has recommended the filing of a reference against the PM and his sons with the National Accountability Bureau.

It may be found that the report is anyway incomplete given the absence of any statement by the Qatari prince whose contribution to the fog of confusion that surrounds the case may be its downfall. He supported in two letters the Sharif story of the money trail that led to the purchase of the London flats that underpin the entire farrago. If that is the case and the report is subsequently kicked into the long grass of politics then a core evidential link remains unexamined and not proven either way.

Though there is no mortal wound the PM is weakened, and his party will be well aware of that. This may not be a game changer in electoral terms — the PML-N hold enough of the cards to likely hang on to power come the vote in 2018 — but it is personally damaging. The party mandarins may decide that there needs to be a rearrangement of the seats in the ruling family and the PM may shuffle sideways. ‘Go Nawaz go’ will be heard for some time to come, but for now he is going nowhere and the Supreme Court has yet to write the final chapter.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2017.

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