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Expert view: After Nawaz's deportation, what's next?
Published on Mon, Sep 10, 2007 at 17:49, Updated at Mon, Sep 10, 2007 in World section
Tags: Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif
UNREST ASSURED: It’s clear that the government will have some explaining to do at the Supreme Court.
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Expect a lot of trouble in Pakistan in the days to come. Nawaz Sharif has taken the plunge and Gen Musharraf has taken the bait. Which way is the script going to play out now?
Will the Supreme Court intervene? It will. The pressure on Nawaz was never legal though, but moral.
Much is being made about an agreement between Nawaz Sharif and Gen Musharraf in December 2000. Gen Musharraf accuses Nawaz Sharif of going against his word of staying out Pakistan for 10 years. Nawaz Sharif says, it was never 10, but five years. He says, Saad Hariri of Lebanon is witness to this and had taken the responsibility of changing the number of years of exile.
Be that as it may, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, with Chief Justice Iftekhar Chaudhary on the bench, has already dismissed the paper as being without any legal sanctity. The domestic law of Pakistan does not have any legal provision to deport a citizen. The court upheld the appeal of the Sharif brothers earlier in August to return to Pakistan, therefore, without let or hindrance.
Nor was there any arrest warrant against Nawaz Sharif till this afternoon. There was one against Shahbaz Sharif, for murder.
However, three cases were re-opened at Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against Nawaz Sharif. There is no provision of anticipatory bail for an arrest warrant issued by this Bureau. Nawaz could not have got one. An arrest warrant was served on him at Islamabad airport. If media reports are to be believed, Nawaz chose to be arrested when offered a choice of deportation. Once arrested though on an NAB charge, the accused has to be produced before the court. Here’s where Nawaz was counting on the support of the Supreme Court.
It’s clear that the government will have some explaining to do at the Supreme Court. However, it is difficult to see how the Supreme Court can force the government to get Nawaz back.
Will Nawaz be free to go to London? Highly unlikely.
The word so far is that Jeddah will not have a warm welcome this time. Curiously, in the London news conference that Nawaz had on Saturday, he claimed that the Saudi King too had agreed the term of exile should not exceed five years.
It is difficult to see how Nawaz could have made such a tall claim that could be patently false. Saad Hariri has not gone public yet on the claims made by Nawaz. However, the Saudi government is firmly behind Gen Musharraf.
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