Sharif’s comment & Pak’s true colours

One doesn’t know whether to admire or feel sorry for former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Here is a man who tried—twice—to tame the deep state which actually runs Pakistan. And failed. The first time, his handpicked army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, ousted him in a bloodless coup in October 1999, months after the Kargil War, and ruled Pakistan for almost a decade wearing various hats of president, great dictator and of course army chief.

When Sharif returned to power for the third time in May 2013, he once again provoked the army by reaching out to India. On Christmas Day, 2015, the military gasped in disbelief when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a surprise visit to Sharif’s palatial residence to wish him on his birthday. Barely a week later, on 2 January 2016, terrorists attacked an airbase in Pathankot, killing seven people.

In September that year, another attack on an army camp in Uri was followed by an Indian surgical strike against terror camps in PoK. A month later, Sharif became a marked man after a Pakistani newspaper reported that he had made a fervent appeal to the army to act against militants or face international isolation. But instead of brute force, the military used the judiciary to oust Sharif, who had blatantly misused his office for personal profit. 

Banned for life from political activity, Sharif’s recent remarks admitting Pakistan was behind the siege of Mumbai in November 2008 is probably a desperate attempt to hit back at the military and regain some credibility ahead of the upcoming general elections. He has not said anything new. The world knows that the 26/11 terrorists were trained, armed and inspired by Pakistan’s deep state, better known as the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). But while the “string him high for treason” call coming from the military was expected, what is interesting is that even certified Pakistani peaceniks and liberals are echoing that song. And that does not augur well for Sharif, or for the upcoming elections.