Pakistani party licks its wounds after Sharif verdict

Pakistani party licks its wounds after Sharif verdict
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

KARACHI, JULY 23: Pakistan's former ruling party will meet to decide whether to dump ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif as its leader after he was given yet another long prison term, party sources said on Sunday.

Some senior party leaders called for Sharif to be ditched and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) leadership handed over to a new breed of politicians ready to rebuild the shattered party for general elections due before October 2002.

"A convicted person should not lead the party and there is a need for change through party elections," said Mian Mohammad Azhar, the former governor of Punjab province and the most vocal PML voice against Sharif. Sharif was given 14 years jail, banned from public office for 21 years and fined 20 million rupees on Saturday for concealing assets to evade tax.

Stripped of power in a military coup in October, he is also serving two life sentences for hijacking and terrorism and faces other corruption allegations from the military regime under General Pervez Musharraf. His predicament has created a rift in the party between Sharif loyalists led by his wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, and those wanting to break away from his legacy of alleged cronyism and corruption.

Azhar accused the Sharifs of trying to turn the PML into a family party. "Even Quaid-E-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah (the founder of Pakistan) was not made life president of the PML. They are demanding that Sharif should be made life president," he said, adding that his group would demand a leadership ballot.

A joint meeting of the PML's central working committee and members of the suspended parliament will be held on July 30 to discuss how to deal with the conviction. But Sharif's allies, such as Raja Zafarul Haq, said moves to challenge his leadership had little support and would fail.

"The court has only barred him from holding public office. He can continue to lead the party from prison," Haq said. Ejaz Shafi, whom Sharif last month nominated as a PML vice-President said: "There is hardly one or two percent of the party's senior members who want change in the leadership. The majority are in favour of backing Sharif, particularly at this difficult time."

Sharif last month nominated three new vice-presidents and an equal number of party leaders to the central working committee in an attempt to save his leadership. "This is an undemocratic way to run the party. Perhaps he has not learnt any lesson from the past," Azhar said.

Analysts said Sharif could not longer head the party, at least in the medium-term. "He is now out of politics for the foreseeable future, which has its impact directly on the PML and thus directly on national politics," the Nation daily said in an editorial. "The conviction is unlikely to affect his popularity, first because the boycott (of the trial by his lawyers) served to confuse public perception, and secondly because his offence was tax evasion" which is common in Pakistan.

Reaction to the verdict has been muted, with few observers expressing any sympathy for the PML leader who was widely accused of cronyism and corruption during the terms of his two governments. "In the long term, the disqualification (from public office) may not outlast the regime, and even if it insists on it as a condition of transition to power ... that may not mean a delay of more than a couple of years," the Nation said. "However in the short term, Nawaz can no longer lead the PML formally, whatever his behind-the-scenes influence."