Thursday, October 19, 2017

Nawaz Sharif Indicted by Courts

Courts in Pakistan have indicted Nawaz Sharif for corruption, which may mean a possible prison term for him:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/former-pakistan-prime-minister-nawaz-sharif-indicted-on-corruption-charges/2017/10/19/bf76f18a-605e-436c-a8e4-54b6da5d7b58_story.html

It looks like the courts are acting at the behest of the Pak Army, which is trying to throw Sharif out of power. Sharif had been positioning himself as a close business partner with China in the new China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project. This would have not only positioned him for profit, but his coziness with Beijing would have allowed him an upper hand in dealing with the Pak Army. Since the Pak Army exists first and foremost to preserve its own power above all others, they found Sharif's growing power intolerable and have moved to stop it by ousting him through the courts.

It's against this backdrop that Pakistan and its army are now suddenly offering new coooperation to the United States, in order to buy cover for themselves during this backroom coup maneuver. Until and unless the United States sees through Pakistan's games, and learns to recognize Pak Army as the source of regional instability and not its solution, then the US will continue to suckered by Pakistan.

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