Page 10 - Pakistan Link - November 15, 2019

P10 – PAKISTAN LINK – NOVEMBER 15, 2019 OPINION
n By Abbas Nasir Wishing Mian Sahib Well government wanted Mr Sharif to leave sooner
rather than later.
ft er ascertaining that former prime Th ere was realization that taunts of ‘NRO’
minister Nawaz Sharif was critically and disappointment among the supporters
Aill and probably mindful of the con- who’d been primed for blood was one thing;
sequences of something happening to him, something happening to the PML-N leader,
a government committed to when the public is seething with anger due to
the ‘accountability’ of all its economic hardship, was quite another as that
political opponents seems to would be like igniting a tinder box.
have lost its nerve. One earnestly wishes that Nawaz Sharif
Th is, to me, is why Mr responds to treatment and quickly regains
Sharif has been allowed to his health. All else is secondary. Th e elder
travel abroad for treatment, brother’s illness has enabled Shahbaz Sharif’s
notwithstanding a plethora of explanations, view to prevail within the PML-N as the party
mainly conjecture, doing the rounds among seems to have toned down its confrontational
the chattering classes and on the idiot box via stance.
the usual suspects: analysts and anchors, who While in parliament, PML-N legislators
say they’re well informed. gave no quarter to the government, the party
Even as there is talk of a ‘deal’ which remained aloof from Maulana Fazlur Rehm-
ostensibly resulted in the decision, details of an’s Azadi March. It seems increasingly un-
what constituted the give and take vital to any likely that it would rethink that decision par-
deal are conspicuous by their absence, apart ticularly during the Sharif brothers’ absence.
from, of course, the fact that Nawaz Sharif will If Maryam Nawaz were to join them, then
likely have left these shores before the start of any street agitation would be off the table.
the new week. However, if she can’t go abroad, one source
Th e ‘deal’ theorists suggest that Maryam told me, she would take part in politics. In any
Nawaz will be accompanying her father on his case, she will be aware of the impact of her
journey. What is not clear is how she’ll trav- DC area that he would take away the air con- brought Nawaz Sharif’s health to such a criti- decision on her father’s political legacy. Who
el abroad, having surrendered her passport ditioner, refrigerator and other facilities ex- cal pass where his life was now imperiled. knows if the decision on the Azadi March sit-
on the orders of the Lahore High Court that tended to Mr Sharif. Anyone giving the benefi t of the doubt to in could also be revisited?
granted her bail last Monday. It has been barely a week that NAB laws the PTI government and the prime minister Th e permission to allow the former prime
For her to be able to travel, the court will were amended through a presidential ordi- would have believed they were clueless about minister to receive the expert medical atten-
have to revise its bail conditions and as these nance to make ‘C’ class mandatory in prison the extent of how bad Mr Sharif’s condition tion he direly needs has triggered speculation
lines are being written Ms Nawaz hasn’t even for those facing corruption charges involving was and, therefore, treated his illness like any that this ‘temporary exit’ will prove to be the
applied for the return of her passport. Al- more than Rs50 million, a move that seemed other political game where all sorts of accusa- fi rst of the many steps towards unravelling
though it may not be impossible, it does not to target Nawaz Sharif and other opposition tory statements were kosher. the system.
seem likely in the time available before her fa- leaders. One source told me there was panic in the Politics may be the art of the impossible
ther is to leave. Government ministers and special as- PTI government hierarchy when they learned but political punditry is proving to be a greater
“Mian Sahib and Maryam Bibi didn’t re- sistants who are said to speak for the prime through someone they consider trustworthy challenge. Th e most plugged-in of analysts are
turn to Pakistan when faced with imprison- minister were almost mocking the critically that the former prime minister was critically unable to identify the drivers of the maulana’s
ment even though Kulsoom Nawaz Sahiba ill PML-N leader, vilifying him and suggest- ill and was showing no signs of improvement. protest at this stage when the PML-N and PPP
was on her death bed to make a deal now. Re- ing he was not really that unwell and ‘putting Th e tiniest of crises could take his life, they both begged him to wait a few months.
ceiving the best treatment is his right; noth- on an act’ to get relief even as he lay very ill in were told unequivocally. Even those who say he is now looking for
ing’s been off ered in return,” a source close to Lahore’s Services Hospital. Th at was when Shahbaz Sharif was in- a face-saving way out aft er having been left to
the PML-N leadership told me. Any observer watching that would have formed that if the family wanted, and his phy- fend for himself by his PML-N and PPP allies,
In late July, just over three months ago, said that the party in power and its key func- sicians advised it, the government would have acknowledge his open criticism of key institu-
Prime Minister Imran Khan told several thou- tionaries were heartless and bereft of human- no issue if his elder brother was taken abroad tions may have put the latter on the back foot.
sand cheering supporters in the Washington, ity. Aft er all, it was their vindictiveness that for treatment. By this time it was clear the MIAN, P28

www.PakistanLink.com