DOES NAWAZ SHARIF SUFFER FROM DEMENTIA?

Did not Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif know about the presence of militant organizations in his own country? Did not he know who were responsible for carrying out dastardly Mumbai attacks? Did not he know that agencies in Pakistan were deliberately delaying the trial of the 26/11 attacks? Did not he know that any democratically-elected government in Pakistan never had any teeth? Was Mr Nawaz Sharif stupefied all through his three terms as prime minister? And finally, it has dawned on him after waking up from deep slumber that he must share the worst-kept secrets which he thinks the world does not know.

tribune.com.pk

“Militant organisations are 

active. Call them non-state 

actors, should we allow them to 

cross the border and kill 150 

people in Mumbai? Explain it to 

me. Why can’t we complete the 

trial?” — a reference to the 

Mumbai attacks-related trials which have stalled in a Rawalpindi 

anti-terrorism court.”

To be fair to the Pakistani people, this was an angry man taking on the ‘real’ establishment players and the judiciary for allegedly scuttling his chances of returning to power. Sharif feels deprived after the top court ordered his removal as head of his Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) this year following his disqualification from public office after a probe into his family's wealth following the 2016 Panama Papers leak which linked Sharif's children to offshore companies. Sharif, who could never complete his full five-year term as prime minister, sees political conspiracy hatched against him by the Pakistani army and the judiciary. In his previous two stints also he was unceremoniously removed – first in 1993 by a presidential order and second time when General Pervez Musharraf overthrew his government in a coup in 1999 which saw him jailed and later exiled.

Sharif, who is in the midst of a campaign for national elections due later this year, seems to have played his cards all wrong. Even political pundits in Pakistan are baffled over Sharif’s statement which seems to hurt his party’s chances more at the hustings. The opposition has latched on to his statement accusing him of pro-India. There is no doubt that his statement seems more at playing to the gallery in India rather than in Pakistan. India’s charges will gain currency in the wake of Sharif’s statements. India has repeatedly been accusing Pakistan’s army, its intelligence agency and the non-state actors for felicitating the attacks on Mumbai in which 164 people died and more than 300 were wounded. In the days and months to come, he will be pilloried in Pakistan by the opposition parties for compromising national interests. Moreover, he may feel intense heat from within his party as the opposition is bound to make it an election issue.

Smarting under Sharif’s criticism, the Pakistani army and the notorious Inter-State Intelligence would redouble their efforts to malign his image. That Sharif is not the favourite boy of Pakistani military is an open secret. Sharif’s dreams to nurture better relations with India have been repeatedly scuttled by the powerful army in the past. Sharif’s signing of the historic Lahore Declaration with the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in February 1999 did not go down well with the military establishment which undertook a military operation in Kargil the same year. The army was miffed with Sharif’s decision to open up trade, liberalizing the visa regime and encouraging people-to-people contacts between Pakistan and India. Though Sharif has feigned ignorance in the past claiming that he was stabbed in the back by his own army over his decision to improve relations with India, several former Pakistani military leaders have maintained that he was in the know of the operation. The Kargil misadventure not only bloodied the nose of Pakistani army, but Sharif had to rush to the United States to seek its intervention to resolve the crisis.

Sharif’s decision to travel to India for the grand swearing-in ceremony of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and welcoming him in Lahore on the 2015 Christmas Day when the latter made a surprise visit to Pakistan from Afghanistan further anguished the Pakistani army. Is it a mere coincidence that Pakistan-backed militants carried out a deadly attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot precisely seven days after the Modi-Sharif Lahore meeting aimed at reviving the stalled bilateral talks? This has been a regular pattern that there are dastardly attempts to scuttle the talks whenever the two countries try to mend ties.

Sharif seems to have made a tactical mistake by portraying the army and judiciary in poor light in the election time when Kashmir used to be the flavor of all the political parties in the past. Leaders of Pakistani political parties have been riding piggy back successfully on the Kashmir issue during elections. Sharif seems to be trying to inject a new narrative this season which may backfire. In the process, he has not only exacerbated his rivalry with the military and the judiciary, but stands to lose the support of the people as well.