The passport saga

Before completing his cabinet, Prime Minister Sharif Shahbaz gave major relief to his older brother, Nawaz Sharif, by issuing him a new passport, enabling the latter to undertake international travel from London where he has been living in exile for the last two years.

Mr. Nawaz Sharif was allowed to go to London for eight weeks in 2019 by the previous government due to his falling health. He has, however, prolonged his stay in London citing health issues, but is now reluctant to return to Islamabad under his brother’s regime to complete his term of imprisonment of several years awarded to him by the National Accountability Court (NAB) that had convicted him on charges of corruption.

The decision by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has raised many eyebrows, including the filing of a petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in which the petitioner has contended that as Nawaz Sharif was “a court absconder who was convicted by learned NAB court for corruption … it was violative of law, a mockery of the justice system and disgrace to the nation if a diplomatic passport is issued to a convict”.

Moreover, the petition stated that the country’s courts had held that a fugitive would lose all rights a normal person was entitled to, adding that Article 25 of the Constitution had set clear standards against discrimination against such citizens. After hearing the petition, the IHC decided to dismiss the case as it lacked any verifiable proof, except media reports, on which the petitioner had based his case.

Nawaz Sharif did not have any travel documents after his diplomatic passport expired in February, 2021 and the Pakistan Mission in London refused to entertain his request for renewal of his passport on direct instructions from Islamabad.

The former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed had, however, offered Mr Sharif to have “emergency travel documents” issued provided he would return to Islamabad on a PIA flight.

Nawaz Sharif did not take this bait, as he knew that this offer was actually a ruse to trap him by the PTI government. Imran Khan himself had publicly admitted that his decision to let Nawaz Sharif go was a big “mistake.” Interestingly, Shahbaz Sharif had provided personal guarantee for his sick brother for returning to Pakistan after he had received his medical treatment in London.

Matters became more complicated for Nawaz Sharif last year after the UK Home Department refused to extend his stay in London on “medical grounds”. In several videos, he can be seen walking the streets of London and sipping coffee. This calls into question the assertion of him being “critically sick” due to his having inadequate platelets count.

To avoid the risk of being deported to Islamabad and face certain incarceration by the PTI government, he was desperately looking for ways to get out of this situation of “double jeopardy” involving “deportation and incarceration.”

The change of guard in Islamabad provided him the “lucky break” when his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif became the Prime Minister of the country in April 2022.

His brother moved with alacrity not only to issue instructions to the Ministry of Interior to issue him the new passport, but also remove his name from the Exit Control List. Nawaz Sharif wanted to go to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, but he ultimately decided against it. This generated another controversy about the state of his health.

His critics argued that if he was well enough to travel to go to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, he was certainly healthy enough to return to Islamabad to serve the rest of his term of imprisonment. To silence his critics, Nawaz Sharif has decided to stay put in London for the time being and wait for more propitious circumstances to emerge that would allow him to return to Islamabad.

There is a general belief that all the punishment levied against the top leadership of Pakistan Muslim League (N) were politically motivated, particularly by NAB, under the PTI regime to target its political opponents and NAB has been used for this purpose.

Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has publicly called for the disbanding of NAB, because it has served no useful purpose except as an instrument of coercion and intimidation against one’s opponents.

In fact, NAB has spent more money on its activities than it has been able to recover from politicians it has accused of indulging in corrupt practices.

Nawaz Sharif’s conviction by NAB on charges of corruption would ring hollow if the “politicization” of NAB continues unabated. With the change of government in Islamabad, the Pandora’s box of all the financial scandals of the PTI regime has been thrown wide open.

One hopes that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif would not indulge in the politics of vendetta against his political opponents and, during his brief rule, will set a good example of judicious conduct, fair play and rule of law. His failure to do so would push the country further down the road to deep political polarization, violence and conflict.

NAB’s role needs reform and that should be Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s top priority. Rather than being used as an instrument of political witch-hunting of one’s opponents, NAB has to be made a real watchdog for the rule of law, which is needed to check the ubiquitous phenomena of corruption in our country.

The writer is a political scientist and defence analyst