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Brother of ousted Pakistani prime minister chosen to be next leader Brother of ousted Pakistani prime minister chosen to be next leader
(about 3 hours later)
Pakistan’s ruling party has nominated the younger brother of the ousted prime minister as the country’s next leader, after Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the country’s supreme court on Friday after corruption allegations. Pakistan’s ousted prime minister moved on Saturday to install his younger brother as his successor, less than 24 hours after he was forced aside in the wake of a corruption scandal.
As its new leader Shahbaz Sharif will face the task of steering the ruling PML-N party through political turmoil until next year’s election and fending off a rising challenge from opposition leader Imran Khan who emerged as the big winner from the supreme court ruling. The ruling party that Nawaz Sharif headed until a court ruling disqualified him from office nominated his brother, Shahbaz, to eventually take over as leader – although he must first have to stand for election to the national assembly.
To assume the post of prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif needs approval from parliament, but PML-N has a comfortable majority in the 342-seat house. Sharif also put forward Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a staunch ally, to serve as interim prime minister while his brother contests a byelection.
The chief minister of the vast and politically important Punjab province, Shahbaz Sharif, 65, is not currently a member of parliament. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who was petroleum minister until Friday, will be interim prime minister for “about 50 days”, Nawaz Sharif said, until his brother has resigned from his provincial post and is elected to the national assembly. The move was immediately condemned by the opposition leader, Imran Khan, who likened Pakistan’s tradition of political dynasties to “a form of monarchy”. “Political parties don’t have democracy in them. They are family parties … Actually, it’s like a form of monarchy.”
In a speech in parliament on Saturday, Nawaz Sharif called allegations against him “baseless”, and said his conscience was clear. Sharif revealed the succession plan in a televised speech. In an emotional appeal, he pleaded for support for his brother. He said he had tried his best to put Pakistan on the path of progress, but said he was being unfairly penalised by his disqualification.
“Some people urged me to resign, but I told them that it is not a bed of roses, but a bed of thorns that I am sitting on, and my conscience is telling me not to resign because I did nothing wrong,” he said. He was removed by the supreme court, he said, on “baseless allegations”, adding that the opposition had targeted him and his family. “My conscience is clear. I have never been involved in corruption. I ask you to support me in building this nation of ours. Only one family is being targeted for accountability,” he said.
Sharif was accused of lying on a wealth declaration by failing to reveal a salary from a Dubai-based company, which he says he never claimed. “My hands are clean and none of my family members misused government funds,” he said. “So much time has been wasted on the Panama leaks matter. Since 2013 we have broken the back of militancy; 70%-80% of militancy has been eliminated.”
“When I never took a salary, what would I declare?” Sharif said. “When you take something, there’s a problem; when you don’t, there’s a problem.” Shahbaz Sharif, who has served as chief minister of the politically influential Punjab state since 2013, will have to resign from his post and win a seat in the country’s national assembly before he can assume his elder brother’s former role – a process that may take over a month.
The supreme court ordered the National Accountability Bureau, an anticorruption agency, to file corruption cases against the Sharif family, including the ex-premier. Sharif’s party, which has a comfortable majority in parliament, moved swiftly to ensure continuity and a smooth transition, a day after the supreme court disqualified him from office, after finding he was “not honest” in an asset declaration form filed during his 2013 election campaign. In his speech, Sharif defended his record, insisting that he had always paid his taxes. His daughter, Maryam Nawaz, tweeted that her father would “return with greater force”.
No Pakistani leader since the country’s foundation in 1947, has completed a term. Nawaz Sharif, who was in the last year of his third term, has been ousted twice before, the last time after trying to remove army chief Pervez Musharraf. Abbasi, a former petroleum minister, said he was grateful to Sharif for naming him premier, even though it would only be for a short time.
Musharraf, in an interview with India Today, called Friday’s ruling “well thought out” and “tremendous”. The latest developments came as politicians and legal experts questioned who was running the government. Raja Zafarul Haq, a senior leader from Sharif’s party, said there was no provision in the constitution for the appointment of an acting prime minister.
While, on the surface, the dismissal of a head of state accused of corruption could seem like a victory for democracy and accountability, some have speculated that the move could push Pakistan further towards autocracy. In Pakistan’s perpetual tug-of-war between its military and civilian branches, Sharif has had a strained relationship with the army, which was behind both his previous dismissals. He said that although the court in Friday’s ruling asked the figurehead president, Mamnoon Hussain, to “ensure continuation of the democratic process”, the reality was that the country was still facing a political crisis. He said Sharif might have stayed in power until the appointment of a new prime minister if judges had not sacked him effective immediately.
Suspicions have been rife that the supreme court was doing the bidding of the generals, partly because the court seemed to single out Sharif, sidestepping other high-ranking officials who were also mentioned in the Panama Papers, the massive document leak that unleashed the scandal. The documents implicated Sharif’s children in the purchase of high-end London property through offshore wealth. The supreme court case focused on revelations contained within the Panama Papers leaks in April 2016 which showed that three of Sharif’s children owned offshore companies and assets not disclosed in his family’s wealth statement. It was the latest in a series of corruption allegations that have dogged his career.
Amid political upheaval, Pakistan’s military stands as the most stable institution in the country. That could help confine the political chaos within the country’s borders and limit the destabilising effect on the region. The justices banned Sharif from participating in politics for not being “truthful and honest”. His party’s leaders said that with their majority, they would remain in power until the general elections in June 2018.
The US views the Pakistani military as the real power broker in the country, and a main source of support for Islamist insurgents. Earlier this month, the US announced it would withhold $50m in military aid to Pakistan for its failure to curb terrorist organisations like the Haqqani network, which operates in Afghanistan. Earlier, hundreds of Sharif’s supporters rallied in Islamabad against his disqualification. The demonstrators marched along a main road, chanting slogans, before peacefully dispersing. Opposition leader Imran Khan asked his supporters to travel to Islamabad on Sunday to celebrate Sharif’s removal.