This is apropos a Business Recorder news item "People won't come out if Nawaz disqualified: Imran" carried by the newspaper on July 21. Speaking to media, PTI chief Imran Khan had said that Nawaz Sharif should not be under any misconception that people willtake to the streets if he is disqualified by Supreme Court in the ongoing Panama Papers case. "He [Nawaz Sharif] should remember the day when he was deposed in 1999; people had in fact disbursed sweets then. When Nawaz Sharif came back from the so-called exile, there was no one to receive him," Imran was quoted as saying.

There was no popular opposition to the Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case is a fact. There would have been celebrations on a mass scale across the country had the apex court's decision led to fresh elections. The PML-N is said to be using the government machinery to cause widespread opposition to the apex court's decision. This is a dangerous approach to politics. The PML-N must not tread this path for it will not augur well both for political class and the future of democracy in Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017