Nawaz Sharif’s health

Vendettas when driven by an insatiable deep-seated acrimony drive people to behave paranoid. Such conduct was evident as the government grappled with the issue of Nawaz Sharif’s departure for medical treatment.

It has now been established beyond any shadow of a doubt the former prime minister is gravely ill. This has been admitted by the PTI’s top leadership itself. It has also been concluded that the ailing leader needs certain laboratory tests that are not available in the country.

The Exit Control List (ECL) then came in the way. Now those with some knowledge of the power of the government to block individuals from travelling abroad due to pending cases in the courts know that such restrictions are imposed by the government and can also be relaxed or withdrawn by the executive authority. Unless there is a court order prohibiting certain individuals from going abroad, the government can, in its discretion, withdraw a ban on an individual anytime.

But the government’s inability to take a decision that should have taken a few minutes took many by surprise. There was indecision, and a lack of capacity, resolve and competence at all levels. In its state of confusion, the government placed conditions like the furnishing of bonds and undertakings by Nawaz Sharif to return to the country within a stipulated time period. Such a condition is not covered by any law or rule. That was a naïve, out-of-the-box approach on an issue that should have been addressed on humanitarian grounds.

In dealing with the issue of letting Nawaz Sharif go for urgent treatment abroad, the government exposed its weak political and administrative credentials and its unbridled venom and acrimony towards the PML-N chief and three-time prime minister.

Sanity was nowhere to be seen. Obstructing medical treatment for a genuinely sick former prime minister was a new low in Pakistan’s troubled political system.

Not only that, one minister after another came out ridiculing the “luxury” of medical treatment abroad for the ailing leader. In their no-holds-barred, outrageous and at times disgraceful characterisation of Nawaz Sharif’s sickness, they crossed thresholds of decency and propriety.

Unfortunately, vendetta has taken hold to an extent where it has overshadowed all other nation-building or institution-building activities. A belief emerges as if hounding political opponents is the principal objective and that such persecution of political rivals would help resolve the many problems and challenges facing the country. This obsession with punishing opponents has diverted attention from issues that affect the lives of millions of impoverished Pakistanis on a daily basis.

Prices of gas, electricity, medicines, food items and transport have risen phenomenally. The rupee has taken a plunge. Harsh taxation measures have created resentment and forced investors to shift resources abroad. As a result, more than a million people have become jobless, thousands of small and big factories have closed down, and sales of automobiles have plunged to a new low.

But that does not seem to attract attention. The paramount priority is to humiliate and bring into disrepute all those posing a challenge.

A bizarre and egregious abuse of authority is at display. The country has been overtaken by an insidious wave of dishonest rhetoric that borders on deception. The leadership of major political parties has been thrown on the defensive because of a large number of cases of corruption against them. The objective was to disable them politically so that they would be focused on saving their skins rather than combating the mostly damaging policies that adversely affect the lives of the country’s poor.

This is partisan politics at its worst.

Meanwhile an ailing Nawaz Sharif has finally gotten the green signal, despite humanity being initially trumped by an irrepressible urge to eliminate those who could ever pose a threat.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2019.

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