Maryam’s acquittal

In a much-anticipated development, the Avenfield case lost its writ in the court of law yesterday. A two-member bench of Islamabad High Court overturned the conviction of PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and her husband, Captain (retd) Safdar. This must have come as a sigh of relief for the couple who had relentlessly campaigned against the July 6, 2018 decision that had sealed their political fate. But that will not bring the curtain down on the assets-beyond-means case that was initiated in the backdrop of the Panama Leaks, implicating the then first family into serious charges of money-laundering and corruption.

The onus rested with the state prosecution which, in this case and at this point of time, was solely under the discretion of the current dispensation. And the court merely relied on the substance laid down before it took a call in its conscience. The drop of the hat came as the public prosecutor failed to build a substantial case linking the authenticity of the impugned properties in London to Maryam and her father, threetime prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Maryam had been sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018 for abetment after she was found instrumental in concealment of the properties of her father. But Maryam and her father were off the hook in no time, and since then the litigation is one of the most quoted in the annals of our current history.

The acquittal will, however, be debated and surely challenged by political adversaries. But for the Sharif family, it is a process as it had filed appeals against its conviction, to which the court had suspended their sentences and released them on bail. The point that this clean chit from the judiciary has come at a time when vibes of a deal are on, and the opposition is crying foul for striking a second reconciliation with the establishment, makes it a horrendous proportion to defend. But come what may, a change is in the wings and the PML-N has smartly played its cards.