Syed Shoaib Umer Ahmad
A day of judgment which was the most awaited day in the history of Pakistan is here now, after few hours the verdict will be announced, the verdict which is said to be remembered for centuries, because it is one of its own kind of case in which the sitting Prime Minister of Pakistan is trailed along with many other family members. Ruling party was facing courts in money laundering and corruption cases. The main petitioner was former captain and now the head of second largest political party Imran Khan. Khan given a very tough time to Sharif throughout his tenure, by raising voice on the floor of the house thensuccessfully ran a strong social media campaign, then longest sit-in by any party in the history of Pakistan counted as 126 days. The another name included in petitioners is SirajUlHaq head of Jamaat e Islami and the other one, very well-known and the most active person on media throughout these proceedings was ShaikhRasheed. All of them combined to drag ruling elite class to balustrade.
Meanwhile Sharifs tried there level best to defend themselves by giving so much defensive material to the courts the most known document was a letter of Prince of Qatar which stated that they have given that untraceable money to Sharifs to start their business, then it stated these matters as well which was not connected to them directly like the purchase of Mayfair and Park lane apartments costs billions of dollars. Cost was not the matter, but the source of income behind these dollars which is still unknown to the public when few hours left in the decision. There were a lot of reports published regarding this property which were later presented as evidence in the court during proceedings by the petitioners. According to official documents obtained from an organization that keeps records of property buying and selling in London, the first flat located in central London’s Mayfair areas was purchased at 17 Avenfield House on June 1, 1993. The second flat, flat 16, was purchased on July 31, 1995 in the same Avenfield House building.
Flat 16-A, the third flat, was bought on the same date and in the same building. 17-A, the fourth flat, was purchased on July 23, 1996. But on other hand Prime Minister Nawaz sharif said on the floor of the house in front of media that they have bought these billion dollar flats in 2006, same statement was also given by his son Hussain in a planted media interview which was telecasted just days before Panama leaks Published.
Timeline of these properties was one of the main controversial things in the whole scenario, while discussing this Imran Khan said that “I am now embarrassed because in 1998, I protested outside their Mayfair apartments. If they weren’t theirs, I don’t know whose residence I protested outside. I would like to beg their pardon,” he said. “If they weren’t Nawaz Sharif’s whose were they?”
Many funny things also came to see during proceedings like nobody ready to believe that PM Nawaz can have a stone in his kidney like other human beings, that he can also have a serious heart disease or surgery as well, everybody was saying that this is a drama to divert media’s attention.
On the other if Imran Khan meets Army chief the media started to report that there is an ongoing planning behind closed doors, nobody wants to believe that this can also be a routine meeting or any other issue to discuss.
Yet the ongoing suspense is almost too much to take with different conspiracy theories taking root at rapid speed.It has been a long wait for thisjudgment which is likely to change the country’s political dynamics. More than six weeks have passed since the court concluded the hearing and went into a huddle. There was no short judgment and it does take some time to arrive at a decision especially when there are five highly independent-minded judges examining all the legal aspects of this extremely complicated case with serious political consequences. The nation seemed to have been put on hold waiting excitedly for the outcome.
What so ever the decision will be, one thing is clear that our people started to think, it’s an opening of a new chapter. Upcoming generations will know that who so ever the person is, he is answerable after law and can be brought to justice. That will be the scenario when the decision is going to be remembered for centuries but I am also fearful that if judiciary is unsuccessful to give justice in this case, history will mark us as a nation who holds different laws for poor and different for rich, the nation who is slave against its own VIP culture.
