Politics of vendetta at its worst
The ailing three time former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, is out of jail on medical bail for eight weeks, but his ordeal is far from over. For the time being however, his critical condition has forced the federal government and the country’s anti graft body to refrain from contesting his bail application at the Islamabad High Court.
This is the second time in a year that Sharif has been released by the courts on short-term bail on health grounds, but this time, a mass opposition rally on its way to march on Islamabad has also played a role to influence the government’s decision to provide provisional relief.
However, there is yet no indication that the Imran Khan led government will relent on its crackdown on opposition leaders, feeding into a political culture where slander and the use of abusive language against opposition parties has become far too common.
This may not be the first time Pakistan is witnessing an accountability roller coaster knocking down the top political leadership, but this time, things are different and the precedents being set could haunt the country for years to come.
Zahid Hussain
Many of the country’s top opposition leaders, including Sharif, another former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and former president Asif Ali Zardari are in custody, alongside a host of others, with many yet to be convicted of any crime.
But the treatment meted out to the detained political leaders is disgraceful, especially as many of them have not even been charged. Several have serious health problems, but in many cases, the government refuses to provide them with even the basic amenities granted under a prison manual.
Khan, in a public speech in Washington, vowed to put these leaders in what are called ‘C-class’ prisons with the common prisoner. In Sharif’s case, the man has a history of serious heart problems after undergoing a botched up surgery a few years ago with his incarceration further complicating his situation. His party leaders have often complained about the lack of proper medical facilities available to Sharif in prison, but until recently, these complaints were dismissed by the government as a ‘political stunt.’ It was only after a medical board declared his condition critical that the government allowed him to be moved to a hospital.
Vendettas have been part of Pakistan’s political culture for decades, but notwithstanding the seriousness of the charges against them, the people who once occupied the highest elected positions in the country deserve better treatment.
Convicted and banned from holding any public office, Sharif is already out of the political race. His daughter, Maryam Nawaz, who is considered Sharif’s heir apparent, is also serving a prison sentence on graft charges. Other members of the family are in the dock too. Two of Sharif’s sons who live in London have been declared proclaimed offenders.
Other imprisoned leaders have serious health issues that have worsened in confinement as well. A case in point is former president Asif Ali Zardari, who has been in prison for the past several months for investigation into a number of money laundering cases against him. He is not yet convicted of any of the charges.
According to his party leaders, the prison’s condition and absence of proper medical facilities have complicated Zardari’s health problems. The spectacle of the former president, now an old man unable to walk without support, brought into the investigation center with his image broadcast around the country, is one way the government metes out humiliation to its political opponents.
Despite having been incarcerated for almost nine years before making it to the highest echelons of power, things are far more serious for Zardari this time. Perhaps most troubling for the PPP is the fact that it is not only the fate of its co-chairman that hangs in the balance but of its other leaders as well, including one of Zardari’s sisters who faces similar charges. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is preparing to take over command of the party, has also been under investigation.
This may not be the first time Pakistan is witnessing an accountability roller coaster knocking down the top political leadership, but this time, things are different and the precedents being set could haunt the country for years to come.
The government’s rhetoric about corruption and its promises of ‘fixing’ the opposition, have made the entire accountability process extremely controversial and brought into question whether the National Accountability Bureau and other investigative agencies in the country, are in fact autonomous at all.
– Zahid Hussain is an award-winning journalist and author. He is a former scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholar, USA, and a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, and at the Stimson Center in Washington DC. He is author of Frontline Pakistan: The struggle with militant Islam (Columbia university press) and The Scorpion’s tail: The relentless rise of Islamic militants in Pakistan (Simon and Schuster, NY). Frontline Pakistan was the book of the year (2007) by the WSJ.
Twitter: @hidhussain
