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Either those wanting NS out were far more assertive or PM was as much in on the plan to let Mian Sahab out

To be fair, Imran Khan was exasperated when he blurted the truth out to the Chief Justice in his November 18 speech with Nawaz Sharif all but flown out of conviction to London in a Qatari royal flight especially sent to fetch him. If you can catch the irony here: convicted; Qatari royal flight; and London. On a bail, yes; but also off the ECL which is controlled and decided by IK and his cabinet (technically NS is still on it, but that’s a minor inconvenience). And who’s complaining? The Prime Minister of Pakistan. To whom? The Chief Justice who’s nominally subordinate courts bailed NS out of jail.

Here are some more check-points to the saga and to the inherent cry out to the CJ to do something. The “government” moved NS to the hospitals and before various boards of highly competent doctors to agree to their finalisation that NS was critically ill. Surely he wasn’t well but that had been the case even when he went through the pain of his entire journey back to Lahore on the GT Road as he implored, “mujhay kyun nikala” (why was I removed?). Why did NAB miss all indicators of his critical state in their custody? Ten days in NAB’s custody and the younger brother reaches out to him to declare to the world that Mian Sahab was critical with a request to the nation for prayers.

If indeed NS was as sick, he needed to be provided the most optimal treatment for his ailment. Clearly he was afforded the best available. But he “needed” to be flown out. And that is when hell broke loose. Imagine for a moment that not the sickness but the criticality of it was a ruse. Put it aside for a moment. Who all would have to be in on the plan then to let him fly out? The government? Given IK’s frustration and his imploration to the CJ that someone needs to stand up to this great injustice of playing footsie to the powerful — in this case a three-time prime minister — he had been unable to say “no” when the proposition was first floated despite holding the most powerful office in the country, which really meant that those wanting NS out were far more assertive and effectively powerful for the PM to acquiesce. Or, he was as much in on the plan to let Mian Sahab out.

Again that leads to two possibilities: one that a bargain had indeed been stuck but it wasn’t with NAB — it just washed its hands off the responsibility. Which really means that certain agencies of influence within and without coordinated to get NS out of his predicaments before the law and courts; as was the case when the Saudis got him bailed from Musharraf in 2001. There are some nations that Pakistan just cannot say no to. Indeed such nations have equally effective relations and access to different power centres in the country. A bargain should imply a “quid pro quo”, but Pakistan so indebted with real quids has only the pro quo to deliver. I use bargain here to avoid using “deal” which is a cursed word.

The result is that NS got to fly out directly from the jail to freedom in London where his properties, and possibly his doctors, await him. The courts only facilitated what had been decided, the CJ says. NAB and the government, both, decided not to contend at any stage of the “due process” the lead up to this “legal” jail-break. He promised to return when he is better — to go back to jail. Welcome to cuckoo land. He may have precedence to fall back on, yet the precarious health, distancing from active politics, personal grief and loss, and an impending transition of the party to his daughter, could only mean that there may not be as much an urgency to return. But his Houdini act this time around will be longer. Remember, Shehbaz Sharif has already resigned from his PAC chairmanship indicating that the lease to freedom will be stretched.

And that is IK’s rub. How to face up to his people fed on the rhetoric of bringing the corrupt to justice? NS’ corruption largely recognised in popular perception even if some explicit conviction remains he has escaped the trap. Massively assisted, but gone. Now deal with it. First option: gulp it, act stately and move on. Two: cry-baby and realise the limitations of applying power in a complex nexus of power which permits only cooperative application. In an ideal political environment cooperative leveraging of influence is the touchstone of how power translates into service to the people. But where political competitiveness turns into persisting acrimony and enmity, the tools of exercising power are lost to other players.

In that sense those pedaling “reconciliation” are right and in its absence are rightly apprehensive of the direction that politics might take. Hence the urgency in some to find a point of repair between power-players. One way out is to cease the acrimony and establish congruence which can enable essential levers of the political system like the Parliament to remain functional and exercise the collective application of power. Else players from outside the political domain not only find space to become assertive they are forced to intervene to resolve matters between feuding interest groups and keep a semblance of stability.

Such a resolution always has a cost. Sometimes it appears in the form of fading civilian control, at others, it comes in the shape of compromises enabling convicted felons to flee. The MFR dharna, the apparent displacement from the proverbial one-page of the government and the establishment — if indeed that is the case — and the need for explanations by the spokespersons; or the sound of a spat between the judiciary and the executive; all indicate a political environment which has gone awry and out of control of the party in power. The cost that the entire system has paid for such dysfunctionality is in the obvious compromises on principles that must be the bedrock of any politics. As indeed it brings forth the limitations, inadequacies and weaknesses of capacity, intent and capability of the ruling elites and power centres towards the state and its people.

The credibility of the entire power structure has been dented instead instituting speculative distrust between what is now increasingly appearing as the two-class system between those who are privileged and those deprived. The ruling system owns the country and any dissonance between them puts at risk the interests of all in that class. Sadly, none owns the people of this country in a dangerously widening chasm. Of it there is no repair in sight.

Neither the CJ nor the PM is entirely right or entirely wrong. They are only part of a system that is fully corroded.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2019.

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