Last call!

There is never a dull moment in Pakistan’s politics. Even a general election fails to get things off the boil and bring the political calm needed for a new government to start taking steps towards implementing its manifesto. An election has rather historically triggered political wrangling among the rival parties — so much so that as soon as a new government is in place, calls for it to leave start reverberating all around. The last election that brought the PTI in power was no exception — and the one before that too, for that matter, that saw the PML-N take the helm.

It’s been nearly a decade now that the two major parties are locked in a political duel — only to give rise to political uncertainty in the country, hampering progress on core issues of governance, foreign relations and trade and investment, as a consequence. The two parties have differed on almost everything under the sun — be that the handling of the economy by the incumbents or their diplomatic dealings; the process of accountability or the functioning of the police. Many a constitutional matter also stands to suffer. The FATF-related legislation is a case in point.

Currently, the acrimony between the ruling party and its main opposition is revolving around Nawaz Sharif’s health and his subsequent travel to London for medical treatment. While it was the PTI government itself that had allowed the former prime minister to leave abroad in the wake of a high court judgment in November last year, the backlash from the public led the ruling party into blowing hot and cold on the issue. It first insisted that Sharif was ‘indeed’ sick enough to be allowed treatment abroad, and then tried to convince the public that he dodged the government into permitting him to leave on humanitarian grounds.

On the other hand, the PML-N chief may have benefited from the government’s political compulsion, but he did lose a lot of political and moral points. Having stayed in London undisturbed thus far, Sharif is now put on a final call — by a high court hearing his appeal against his conviction in a corruption case — to surrender on the next hearing fixed for September 10. Whether or not Sharif heeds to the court’s call, politics is all set to heat up.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2020.

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