Invest in Health Certificates

Fathers and daughters share a unique bond. This is more apparent in the chemistry between the former three times prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam, who now prefers the last name Nawaz Sharif, instead of Safdar, the husband she married for love.

The mid-November events involving the botched affair where a loyalist who was deployed as lifesaver turned into a bitter pill.

Of course, both father and daughter are ruing at another get out of jail opportunity turned into an embarrassment. The cause of consternation in Mayfair, London’s Avenfield Apartments and the sprawling Jati Umra estate, near Lahore is how the momentary euphoria turned into a nightmare.

No one can blame him, but the discontent former head of government has dismissed the fourth attempt to be served his beverage of choice, lassi.

Ruefully, Nawaz Sharif can only lament because the plan’s kingpin, former chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan, Rana Mohammad Shamim had visited him before issuing his diatribe against former chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, accusing him of judicial interference in the corruption references against Nawaz Sharif and Maryam.

Like afore, in such delicate moments, Nawaz has his former finance minister who is also his younger daughter’s father-in-law, Ishaq Dar at hand.

Like clockwork, his party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) stalwarts quickly backed the publication of the Shamim story with declarations that it is another vindication for Maryam and Nawaz.

Joining the chorus, his brother and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif termed the revelation explosive, and that it was yet another vindication for his brother and niece, in, what-he-called the court of public opinion. Adding that the report peeled off a thick layer of a grand scheme employed to target them. Joining him, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a former prime minister, also demanded that notice be taken of the matter and questioned that if Mian Nawaz Sharif can go to jail, why can't Mian Saqib Nisar?

However, the euphoria was short-lived. First, Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued notices to senior journalist Ansar Abbasi, Rana Shamim Ahmed Khan, The News editor-in-chief Mir Shakilur Rehman and the newspaper's editor Amir Ghauri, over accusation against former chief justice Saqib Nisar of colluding to deny bails to top PML-N leadership before the 2018 general elections.

Justice Minallah, Nawaz Sharif couldn’t imagine that has gone so harsh when it was him who demanded that Imran Khan guarantee his life when he was his way to successfully enact the health canard. But pains come in droves. Before, the father and daughter could surmise the court happenings, Rana Shamim’s son, Supreme Court attorney Ahmed Hassan Rana, told a TV interview that not just him, but also his father remained in direct touch with Nawaz and even met him in London before the pandemic. Not just that but also Justice Shamim had also served as the vice-president of PML-N Sindh and was Nawaz's lawyer in the Memogate scandal case.

“Papa,” Maryam inquired, “when you were getting the statement prepared by Justice Shamim, didn’t you include his son too? This is looking like what was done when I was doing the document, someone advised using Calibri font. I really wanted to use the Night Santa font, which was introduced in 2019. The name is so cute, Santa, that everyone would have accepted what we had created.

“Papa, I know that both Hasan and Hussain are taking so good care of you. But it seems that this judge’s son is as bright as my brothers who gave the statement that Avenfield was ours, when we were insisting that we have no connection to the property.”

“O, Maryam, we will take care of that… we can get our big guns in the media like Asma Shirazi and Saleem Safi to invite experts on the issue that boys will be boys. They can create an emergency situation like they did for me on platelets.”

“Papa, surely, I am going put them to work. You know I am well-organized, not just my shoes and bags, I have got the judges videos catalogued so we don’t waste them in leaking any. My other question is that we will also need to settle the dust over the timeline issue. Minallah is questioning why Justice Rana stayed silent for three years and his statement concerning the incident surfaces when our appeal is being heard.”

“O Maryam, again assign it to our assets in the media to show that being retired, not Justice Rana, but in fact, all retired people count years like days. Like Rana, in his mind believes that he has issued the statement after four days and not years. Fine, I will ask Dr. David Lawrence, the kind man who is giving me all those amazing certificates to give certificates to Justice too. Remember, it is always good to invest in health certificates.”