[Shehbaz Sharif has so far been unscathed by the disclosures in the Panama Papers document leak that led Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday to disqualify his brother and order criminal investigations of other family members. But in the court’s same verdict, the justices also included an order to reopen a 2000 case into the Sharifs’ Hudaibiya Paper Mills company, which has been accused of serving in part as a money-laundering front for both Sharif brothers.]
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik
 |
|
Nawaz
Sharif, left, who resigned as Pakistan’s prime minister, with Shehbaz Sharif
in
Lahore, Pakistan,
in 2013. Credit Rahat Dar/European Pressphoto Agency
|
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan — With his term as
Pakistan’s prime minister cut short, and with his governing party facing
critical national elections in less than a year, Nawaz Sharif announced
publicly on Saturday that he was choosing his younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif,
to be his long-term replacement as prime minister and as the party’s standard
bearer.
On one level, it was a clear choice. Over the
past four years, as chief minister of Punjab Province, Pakistan’s most crucial
political power base, Shehbaz Sharif, 65, has presided over a high-profile
campaign of infrastructure improvements and social development programs.
“After losing out on the legal front, Nawaz
Sharif cannot afford to also compromise on the integrity of his party,” said
Rana Jawad, the news director of Pakistan’s most popular news channel, Geo
News. “Shehbaz is an obvious choice to keep both the party united and carry brand
Sharif forward.”
Where his older brother has been criticized
in recent years for a low-energy style in power, Shehbaz Sharif has nurtured a
nearly opposite reputation.
He has become known for surprise inspection
“raids” of hospitals or schools, even in Punjab’s smaller towns, and his aides
describe him as a workaholic with a taste for 7 a.m. staff meetings. Even his
socks are vibrant — he will wear colorfully striped socks even when formally
dressed.
Continue reading the main story
But the choice is not without risk for the
Sharifs’ party, the Pakistan Muslim League.
Though he is seen as popular, Shehbaz Sharif
has also been dogged by accusations of police brutality under his watch as
Punjab’s chief minister. And he has been criticized for doing too little to
curb extremist sectarian groups in the province.
There are long-term questions about his
health, as well. Over the years, Shehbaz Sharif has undergone multiple
treatments for cancer, including of the spinal cord.
His supporters insist that the hard-nosed
style he was known for in early years has softened somewhat. And advisers say
that his medical challenges over the years have driven his recent campaign of
social development.
In a statement to The New York Times on
Friday night, before his selection was publicly confirmed, Mr. Sharif
acknowledged that he would be taking the reins at a critical and turbulent
time.
“I will accept what is best for the country
and the party,” he said. “Pakistan has to move forward no matter how great the
obstacles in our path.”
His path to the prime minister’s residence in
Islamabad will not be instant. Over the next 45 days, another P.M.L. figure —
the current petroleum minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi — will take over as
interim prime minister. Shehbaz Sharif must step down as chief minister and win
election to his brother’s seat in the National Assembly in a spot election,
expected in the coming weeks, before taking over as prime minister.
That initial victory is nearly assured, given
the party’s firm grasp on Punjab politics. But in the coming year, the Sharifs’
rivals, and in particular the former cricket star and political opposition
leader Imran Khan, will seek to shake the P.M.L.’s dominance in Punjab.
Because of that, some see Shehbaz Sharif’s
ascent to the prime minister post as being a bit of a gamble. At a time when
Punjab politics will be the focus of fierce contest ahead of the 2018 national
elections, taking the province’s political kingpin out of the day-to-day
management of the campaign and public affairs there is not an automatic choice.
“Shehbaz Sharif has a proven record of
carrying out mega-development projects in Punjab and delivering what the common
man wants. Then why would you want to remove him from there?” said Nusrat
Javed, a journalist and longtime observer of Punjab politics.
In the glare of the coming national political
race, Shehbaz Sharif will also face tough scrutiny of his business dealings —
often wrapped up with his brother’s — and about accusations of security abuses
during his three separate terms as Punjab chief minister.
In 2014, at least seven people were killed in
Lahore, Punjab’s capital city, in violent clashes between the police and
followers of Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a fiery cleric who had called for mass
anticorruption protests against Nawaz Sharif’s government. Shehbaz Sharif was
accused of ordering the police to open fire, though he called a judicial
inquiry after the killings.
And back in 2003, a court issued an arrest
warrant for Mr. Sharif for having ordered the extrajudicial killings of five
people in a staged police encounter in 1998, during his first tenure as chief
minister. He was barred from contesting the 2008 election because of lingering
murder charges in the case, which have since been dropped.
He is also accused of allowing banned
sectarian organizations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to thrive in Punjab. More
recently, though, the authorities’ killing in July 2015 of that group’s leader,
Malik Ishaq, and some other militant commanders has been seen as an important
shift in Mr. Sharif’s policy toward militants in his province.
Shehbaz Sharif is also seen as carrying one
important advantage over his older brother. Where Nawaz Sharif, whose second
term was cut short by a military coup in 1998, has always been feuding with the
country’s domineering military establishment, Shehbaz Sharif is considered to
have better relations with the generals. At moments of crisis, his aides say,
he has sometimes been able to serve as a bridge between the military and his
brother’s government.
But in other ways, there is still the
potential for conflict with the military under a Shehbaz Sharif government.
Like his brother, Mr. Sharif has been particularly vocal about his desire to
improve relations with archrival India, a move that is anathema to the army.
And there is also the matter of his business
dealings.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — With his term as
Pakistan’s prime minister cut short, and with his governing party facing
critical national elections in less than a year, Nawaz Sharif announced
publicly on Saturday that he was choosing his younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif,
to be his long-term replacement as prime minister and as the party’s standard
bearer.
On one level, it was a clear choice. Over the
past four years, as chief minister of Punjab Province, Pakistan’s most crucial
political power base, Shehbaz Sharif, 65, has presided over a high-profile
campaign of infrastructure improvements and social development programs.
“After losing out on the legal front, Nawaz
Sharif cannot afford to also compromise on the integrity of his party,” said
Rana Jawad, the news director of Pakistan’s most popular news channel, Geo
News. “Shehbaz is an obvious choice to keep both the party united and carry
brand Sharif forward.”
Where his older brother has been criticized
in recent years for a low-energy style in power, Shehbaz Sharif has nurtured a
nearly opposite reputation.
He has become known for surprise inspection
“raids” of hospitals or schools, even in Punjab’s smaller towns, and his aides
describe him as a workaholic with a taste for 7 a.m. staff meetings. Even his
socks are vibrant — he will wear colorfully striped socks even when formally
dressed.
Continue reading the main story
But the choice is not without risk for the
Sharifs’ party, the Pakistan Muslim League.
Though he is seen as popular, Shehbaz Sharif
has also been dogged by accusations of police brutality under his watch as
Punjab’s chief minister. And he has been criticized for doing too little to
curb extremist sectarian groups in the province.
There are long-term questions about his
health, as well. Over the years, Shehbaz Sharif has undergone multiple
treatments for cancer, including of the spinal cord.
His supporters insist that the hard-nosed
style he was known for in early years has softened somewhat. And advisers say
that his medical challenges over the years have driven his recent campaign of
social development.
In a statement to The New York Times on
Friday night, before his selection was publicly confirmed, Mr. Sharif
acknowledged that he would be taking the reins at a critical and turbulent
time.
“I will accept what is best for the country
and the party,” he said. “Pakistan has to move forward no matter how great the
obstacles in our path.”
His path to the prime minister’s residence in
Islamabad will not be instant. Over the next 45 days, another P.M.L. figure —
the current petroleum minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi — will take over as
interim prime minister. Shehbaz Sharif must step down as chief minister and win
election to his brother’s seat in the National Assembly in a spot election,
expected in the coming weeks, before taking over as prime minister.
That initial victory is nearly assured, given
the party’s firm grasp on Punjab politics. But in the coming year, the Sharifs’
rivals, and in particular the former cricket star and political opposition
leader Imran Khan, will seek to shake the P.M.L.’s dominance in Punjab.
Shehbaz Sharif has so far been unscathed by
the disclosures in the Panama Papers document leak that led Pakistan’s Supreme
Court on Friday to disqualify his brother and order criminal investigations of
other family members. But in the court’s same verdict, the justices also
included an order to reopen a 2000 case into the Sharifs’ Hudaibiya Paper Mills
company, which has been accused of serving in part as a money-laundering front
for both Sharif brothers.
As with the Panama Papers accusations, the
Sharifs’ main rival, Imran Khan, has been seen as driving public clamor to
reopen that case.
“They should at least read the court’s full
judgment before they decide to nominate Shehbaz,” said Fawad Chaudhry, a
spokesman for Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Party.
