DNA Edit: Curtains for Nawaz - The ex-premier’s political career is over, bar the shouting

It is a sad day for Indo-Pakistan relations, already in deep doldrums, when the political career of a man like Nawaz Sharif, comes to an end.

The ousted former Prime Minister was sentenced to seven years in jail in the Al-Azizia steel mill graft case. Under Pakistani jurisprudence – not much different from Indian law – the judge who handed out the sentence said that the former premier was unable to explain the money trail used to set up the Al-Azizia steel mills in Saudi Arabia by his family in 2001 and later the Hill Metal Establishment, also in the same country.

As per the judgment, Sharif will now spend seven years in prison and pay hefty fines. For all practical purposes, his political career at 68 is over, unless the Supreme Court entertains a revision petition, of which there is no sign.

Earlier this year, the country’s apex court had banned him from participating in elections for life. In other words, it is curtains for Sharif. While graft charges against politicians are common in the Indian sub-continent, Nawaz Sharif represents a different, even rare, strand in Pakistan politics.

He is one of the few politicians in that country who dared to improve relations with India, much against the wishes of his old mentors, the all-powerful military establishment. And he has paid a price. Sharif agreed to meet Atal Bihari Vajpayee half way at Lahore in 1999, was thrown out by the Pakistani army in a coup, and exiled for several years.

When he first appeared on the scene in the 1980s, Sharif became the first politician in Pakistan to win an election on the promise of improving relations with India. That he could not, was not for the lack of trying against an establishment heavily tilted against India.

In fact, it would be no exaggeration to suggest that Sharif was hounded all his life for pursuing good relations with India, an allegation that came back to haunt him even during the course of his last election campaign recently.

All too familiar charges of selling out to India in imaginary industrial deals, were levelled against him by the opposition parties, many of whom, including the current dispensation, were proxies for the military establishment. Clearly, all those who favour a confrontationist policy with India would be happy with the court decision in Pakistan.

While in the murky military-dominated politics of Pakistan, Sharif’s wheeling-dealing could well be true, surely he is not the only one indulging in graft. It would also be instructive to remember that Indo-Pakistan relations, when power is in the hands of civilian prime ministers there, has shown an upward trend, only to be thwarted by the military.

Asif Ali Zardari may be corrupt, but he too tried to improve ties with New Delhi during his regime. But, then it is equally true that relations with India are scarcely defined by Pakistani Prime Ministers.