It is official—Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has left Pakistan for treatment. Sharif—who still enjoys popular support especially in Punjab—has been critically ill for a long time. His departure on an air ambulance this afternoon to London, is heartening news for his supporters and even his detractors.
With Sharif's condition not improving—and doctors not being able to get to the root of the issue—his remaining in Pakistan, if the worst was to happen, was likely to backfire for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government. The establishment, rumour has it, was keen to get Sharif out of Pakistan. However, the PTI government, read Khan, who has fought his election on an anti-corruption agenda, was less keen to let Sharif to let go.
Sharif had at first refused to leave Pakistan only to be later convinced by his brother Shahbaz and his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif. The decision to let him go came after over a dozen doctors examined him and recommended that he needed to travel outside Pakistan. Last week, when it was first announced that he would be on his way to London, a condition was imposed—he would be allowed to leave only after he signed a bond of Rs. 700 crores, the exact same amount that he is believed to have “looted''.
This would be as political commentator Najam Sethi put it, an admission of guilt.
But, to add to the drama, the family approached the Lahore High Court. On Saturday, the High Court allowed taking Sharif off the Exit Control List for four weeks. Both the Sharif brothers had to sign undertakings that they would return. This decision by the Lahore High Court found support across the border in Pakistan's all-weather friend China. In a bizarre tweet, Lijian Zhao, who was a former diplomat in Pakistan, said"This decision by the #LahoreHighCourt is a decision in need, thus a good decision indeed''. The tweet, if nothing else, indicates the way the wind is blowing.
In an indication that Khan may have got the message too, Geo TV has reported that the government is unlikely to approach the Supreme Court over Sharif's departure. In Lahore, rumours abound and the cause of Sharif’s illness is no secret. There is the speculation of the genetic disease, the falling palette, the reason—some quarters claim is the big C. His destination may end up being the United States and not London.
However, if political commenters are to be believed, there is more bad news. There is a belief that Khan himself might be on a slightly sticky wicket.
While the army and the government may be on the same page—a comment that is oft repeated in Pakistan—to paraphrase Shakespeare, the lady doth protest too much. Uncertainty remains, as Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa’s three-year term extension was signed but not yet officially released by the army headquarters. Bajwa’s term expires on November 30. And to that, the march by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, demanding Khan's resignation, could spell trouble. The jury is still out.
