Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s sentence by the Supreme Court on contempt charges was over in just 37 seconds on Thursday, but in the following three days, the two major national parties appear to have buried, at least for now, the oft-reported ‘understanding’ between them to avoid taking their differences to the point of ‘no return’.
The statements issued by the leaders of the PPP and PML-N over the past three days, accusing each other of committing corruption and making compromises on principles, have revived the politicking of the 1990s between them.
Two back-to-back hard-hitting news conferences – one by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and the other by Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan -- kept journalists on their toes on a rather dreary Sunday.
For the second day, Mr Malik came up with allegations of money laundering against the Sharif brothers and the opposition leader termed the minister’s tirade an attempt to divert people’s attention from the real issue of $60 million stashed in Swiss accounts. He said it was ironic that both the president and the prime minister were convicted men.
Chaudhry Nisar indicated that he would spearhead a strong protest in the National Assembly on Monday evening if the prime minister tried to attend the session.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Thursday, Chaudhry Nisar called for Mr Gilani’s resignation after his conviction and dared the treasury benches to bring the prime minister to the house. Mr Gilani did not attend the session on Thursday evening, but taking advantage of the absence of a majority of PML-N’s members, attended Friday’s session briefly and delivered a speech in which he castigated PML-N’s policy and challenged the opposition to bring a no-trust motion against him.
Chaudhry Nisar said on Sunday the prime minister had come to the house only after getting information that most of PML-N’s members were in Lahore for a meeting.
He also criticised Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza for allowing the prime minister to speak during the question hour.
“We are here and the arena too. They will find us there in tomorrow’s session,” he said.
He said his party would announce its plan of action after a joint meeting in Islamabad on Monday of its central working committee and parliamentary group which would be presided over by Mian Nawaz Sharif.
Responding to a question, he said the opposition’s movement was not for removing the government, but for implementation of the court’s verdicts. He said his party was not interested in bringing a no-confidence motion against Mr Gilani.
In response to the minister’s allegations of money laundering against the Sharif brothers, he said there was nothing new in them.
He said most of the cases about which the interior minister was talking were 15 to 18 years old and were pending in courts. He said the PML-N had itself approached the courts in some cases to make early decisions.
Chaudhry Nisar constantly used the term “swindler” for Mr Malik in his news conference and said the minister had a “stinking reputation” even in his own party. He said he considered it “below his dignity” to respond to Mr Malik’s each and every allegation.
Earlier, the interior minister again accused the Sharif brothers of receiving money from Younus Habib and challenged PML-N’s leaders to drag him to a court of law if his charges were false. “If the PML-N has courage then it should file a defamation case against me,” Mr Malik challenged. He announced that he would release more “corruption stories” of the Sharif brothers in the next few days.
Mr Malik asked the PML-N chief to first get himself cleared from the Supreme Court of charges of receiving money from Younus Habib, the chief of the now defunct Mehran Bank.
He said he had instructed his office to send the documents to the National Accountability Bureau for legal action.
Mr Malik said the nation wanted to know how Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, who were in prison after their conviction in 2000, were allowed to leave the jail without following the judicial process. He urged the Punjab government to make public the documents relating to the release of the brothers.
Replying to a question, Mr Malik said he would approach the Supreme Court with new evidence and also hoped that it would take suo motu notice of the corruption of the Sharif brothers.
On Saturday, the minister had accused the Sharif family of robbing 31 banks and financial institutions of over Rs6 billion to build their industrial empire.
He said his party’s leadership was not allowing him to bring forward the evidence against the Sharif brothers in the interest of political environment. He alleged that it appeared that Chaudhry Nisar wanted the Sharif brothers to be exposed.
Mr Malik is also reported to have hinted that he possessed a letter allegedly written to Gen Musharraf by the mother of Chaudhry Nisar seeking his pardon.
When Chaudhry Nisar was asked about the claim, he said: “If he is man enough, he should make the letter public.” He announced that if Mr Malik presented any such letter he would quit politics.
This is not the first time since the 2008 elections that the nation has seen the two parties jabbing at each other. But political analysts believe that this time their confrontation may last longer and culminate in a high drama since elections are only months away.
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