December the 24th

December the 24^th looms – both for Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari. That day the courts will come up with rulings that would be vital in determining the fate of the two leaders – the de facto bosses of the country’s two top political parties, currently in the opposition. The fate of Sharif, who has thrice served as prime minister, hangs in the balance of the accountability court verdict in two of the three corruption references against him, one of which has already resulted in his conviction, but is being contested in a high court. And what lies in store for Zardari, a former president, will come to the fore as a JIT report in the fake bank accounts case will be taken up the top court.

The two parties – the PML-N and the PPP – have threatened to give the PTI-led government a tough time in case their leaders are sent behind bars in their respective cases. Senior PPP leader Khursheed Shah does not rule out the possibility of a meeting between Zardari and Sharif to forge a joint stand against “political victimisation of the government’s opponents”.

At a meeting attended by its bigwigs, the PML-N has decided to launch an agitation movement, besides contacting the masses to apprise them of “the real reasons behind the cases” against the party leadership. The PPP leaders, workers and supporters, on the other hand, have already moved into the agitation mode on Zardari’s call. They gathered in big numbers at a banking court in Karachi where the former president and his sister, Faryal Talpur, appeared in a case of fake bank accounts.

Does all this herald the start of a new phase of the turbulent time in politics that the country has been passing through for years – with just the role reversals for the PTI and the parties that oppose it? Well, the December 24^th judgments will provide the answer.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2018.

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