Going a step further, the opposition has developed its own ToRs for the proposed judicial commission. In essence, the opposition has proposed that the inquiry should begin from the Sharif family, including the prime minister, followed by other Pakistani nationals named in the Panama Papers. As for those whose loans were written off and those who avoided taxes, they should also be brought to justice along with the family of the prime minister.
On its part, the government has rejected as “unconstitutional and mala fide” the ToRs proposed by the opposition. Last week, a meeting of political parties allied to the government, including JUI-F of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the National Party of Hasil Bizenjo and PkMAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, unequivocally endorsed PML-N’s ToRs and vowed to take a tough stand against the opposition on the issue of the offshore holdings of the Sharif family. They characterized the opposition’s ToRs as “selective and violative of the Constitution and the law” and targeted solely the prime minister and his family. The PML-N and its allies also decided that the prime minister would not appear before the parliament to explain his position.
The Panama Papers should have ideally led to a process of fair and meaningful accountability of the country’s elected representatives. But in fact they have sparked a game of nerves between a government which wants to obfuscate and confuse the issue and the opposition which wants to put Nawaz Sharif through the accountability process at all costs.
So tense the political atmosphere has become and so keyed up all the players are that the level of political debate has sunk to its lowest depths. While Nawaz Sharif has described his political opponents “terrorists”, the PTI spokesmen have dubbed Nawaz Sharif as a “robber” prime minister and charged that he and his “darbaris” are eating up the country like termite. In this din, the recovery of billions of rupees and gold from the Balochistan finance secretary’s residence has further dented the credibility of Nawaz Sharif and his government.
What is the way out of the gridlock that holds the country in its grip? The PML-N and the combined opposition need to realize that if the situation is not to deteriorate beyond their control, they will have to evolve a compromise formula about the scope of the judicial commission. The government’s argument is that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family should not be put at the centre of judicial investigations because accountability should be even-handed, and everyone named in the Panama Papers should be probed simultaneously.
There is a logical flaw in the PML-N’s line of argument. Since Nawaz Sharif occupies the highest office in the land, he cannot demand that he be treated like the average citizen when it comes to suspicions of misconduct. The higher you are, the greater your answerability before law. Needless to say, with each passing day, the impression is gaining ground that the prime minister is trying to hide behind technicalities and legal minutiae to escape accountability.
It is true that the mismatch between the asset declarations of elected representatives and their lavish life style shows that the vast majority of them have not fully declared their true income and wealth. Nobody will dispute that they also need to be brought within the accountability net, but the prime focus has to be on Nawaz Sharif, not only because of his official position but also because his children have been specifically named in the Panama Paper. It is the prime minister’s moral duty to set an example by submitting himself to a judicial scrutiny and forensic audit ahead of others.
The release of the Panama Papers has given rise to a range of questions about the Sharif family: how it acquired its enormous wealth and through which channels it was sent abroad. And, also do his tax returns match the accumulation of assets mentioned in the Panama Papers. These are questions that must be answered by Nawaz Sharif to clear his name. The Sharif family cannot expect partial or full immunity from investigations simply because of Nawaz Sharif’s position. Nobody is above the law.
The opposition’s ToRs have rightly focussed on the prime minister and his family because that is where the focus needs to be. The prime minister has to prove beyond a shred of doubt that he did no wrong. Until he does that, the matter will keep hanging fire, vitiating the atmosphere for a healthy working of the democratic system. The Panama Papers are the tip of the iceberg, and the earlier we get them out of the way, the better for the future of democracy in Pakistan.
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