Every politician, like any other celebrity, has his or her tryst with destiny. That might be it for Nawaz Sharif at this juncture in his career. Never did he ever before came face to face with karma to decide how he would like to be remembered in the history of Pakistan.

Nawaz’ disqualification to run for the national Assembly of Pakistan in a by-election by none other than the Lahore High Court, on June 23, faces him with perhaps the most difficult and momentous decision of his political life. How should he react to it? How should he take it? What should be his response to the gauntlet thrown at him by his adversaries?

One obvious villain that might have provided the trigger for this ‘political’ verdict by Punjab’s top court is none other than Pervez Musharraf. As such, the Nawaz Brigade, led by junior Sharif, Shehbaz, didn’t lose a minute before pointing their guns at Nawaz’ principal nemesis, ensconced in the Presidency, for being the culprit in this episode. Conventional wisdom is on their side: Pervez Musharraf would hate to see Nawz entering the parliament and gaining another niche to take pot shots at him. Musharraf must gravely fear the chances of his impeachment taking a hefty boost with Nawaz in parliament.

That the ‘honourable’ justices who handed down this crassly partisan verdict against a man who has twice been PM of Pakistan owe their jobs to Pervez Musharraf, is as good an evidence as any of their being party to a political conspiracy hatched in the Presidency to keep Nawaz out of the parliament. These PCO judges must take fright at the prospect of Nawaz getting into the parliament to hasten their unceremonious departure from the positions gifted to them by an autocrat’s hunger for unbridled power.

Ironically, the court vendetta against Nawaz Sharif came swiftly on the heels of the publication of a poll of public opinion in Pakistan, conducted by two independent, Washington-based think tanks—The New America Foundation and Terror Free Tomorrow—between may 25 and June 1. According to their findings, the most popular politician in Pakistan, today, is none other than Nawaz Sharif with a public approval rating of 86 per cent.

In contrast, the popularity rating of Pakistan’s latest king maker, Asif Ali Zardari, stands at a dismal 13 per cent only. That plummeting graph of a magician- politician who seems to suffer from visions of grandeur could be the big, invisible, factor in the Lahore High Court’s doctored decision against Nawaz Sharif.

Nawaz Sharif must have this sense at the back of his mind—if not, then he’s not worth all the trust the people’s power may have vested in him—that Zardari, potentially, is a greater adversary to him than Pervez Musharraf. With his lust for power infinitely boosted by the recognition he is getting from all and sundry as kingmaker, in the new dispensation of power in Pakistan, Zardari, understandably, wouldn’t countenance the idea of a rival pole of power emerging in the country to challenge his dominance, if not today then, very likely, tomorrow. The ‘threat’ from Nawaz cannot be brushed aside lightly in the Zardari camp. Nawaz is the star of Punjab, the largest province of the Federation and one with the greatest weight to muscle into everything in regard to governance of the country.

That Zardari is ambitious, beyond words, goes without saying. The man who earned the damning sobriquet of ‘Mr Ten Per cent’ when his slain wife was in power can’t be blamed if he may have started nurturing the goal of becoming Pakistan’s undisputed ‘Mr. Cent Per cent.’

The only man who has the mass support and clout, in the Pakistani context, to derail Zardari’s gravy train is Nawaz. Hence the prospect of a battle royal between the two to go after the big prize in quest of the centre of power is a very real possibility.

Zardari has the advantage of being leader of the largest political party and would naturally want to add on to this leverage by getting those instruments of power on his side that could be helpful to him in getting to the point he would covet to reach. A judiciary beholden to him would lend a big boost to his chances of muscling out all opposition. No wonder he’s so keen to keep the PCO judges in their places.

There’s a history in Pakistan of autocrats getting ‘legitimacy’ for their power grab from convenient judges. The process started with Ghulam Mohammad, in 1954, with his Biradriwala, Chief Justice Munir, arrayed right behind his coup against the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. The demon of ‘law of necessity’ then conjured may have haunted Pakistan, ever since, but has served all autocrats to their heart’s content, to date, with the likes of Munir doing their bit to smoothen the path by ironing out all the judicial kinks.

Zardari has been playing hide-and-seek with Nawaz on the judges’ issue. He committed himself to have the deposed judges restored within 30 days of his government coming to power, under the Bhurban Agreement, but fell short on it. The issue is still hanging the fire. Zardari’s stance on this prickly question, which the lawyers’ movement has turned into an issue of greatest importance for the nation, is, for want of a better description, thoroughly dishonest and equivocal. He has simply been dragging his feet on it, on one pretext after another.

Nawaz Sharif is not a political novice to be taken in by Zardari’s duplicitous behaviour. He knows that Zardari doesn’t want the likes of Iftikhar Chaudhry running an independent judiciary beyond the avaricious grasp of the ruling clique, whichever may be in power at a given time. Zardari, like Musharraf, would prefer someone like the usurper Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar—an obliging judge—to do his bidding without demur. Zardari has a much better camaraderie of sorts with Musharraf on the judiciary than with Nawaz.

Zardari has also been hedging his bets as to how Musharraf should be dealt with. While Nawaz is no longer in favour of giving Musharraf a safe passage, Zardari seems well inclined to do so. Understandably, Zardari is concerned for Musharraf’s future because the two of them have become like symbiotic twins, because of their affinity under the National Reconciliation Order (NRO) that granted Zardari a fresh lease of life to run berserk over the political landscape of Pakistan. Zardari owes one to Musharraf; Nawaz doesn’t.

The moment of truth is well and truly staring Nawaz in the face. He’s the one who should now be deciding which way he should go and how should he call the bluff of Zardari, who seems to suffer from the syndrome of a typical megalomaniac: that he can fool all the people, all the time.

The sooner Nawaz calls Zardari’s bluff the better for him.

A leader who may have taken the road to the high plateau of moral right can’t afford to be riding two horses, simultaneously. The urgency of taking a categorical and unequivocal stance on Zardari’s ignoble conduct was never more urgent than today, when Nawaz is riding the wave of popular support and is being seen by a cross- section of the people of Pakistan as a politician who doesn’t shirk from taking a bold stand on an issue of core significance, such as the restoration of judges deposed by a power-drunk Musharraf, last November 3.

A popular leader shouldn’t allow himself to be manoeuvred by expediency.

Zardari has been playing on, and taking advantage of, Nawaz’ morbid fear that any breach in his coalition with PPP would be a boon to Musharraf and usher in an ‘axis’ of his enemies—Musharraf, the Q-League, MQM et al. That fear has made Nawaz indecisive. Since May 12, when PML(N’s) ministers broke rank with the government for its failure to honour the Bhurban accord, Nawaz is no longer part of the ruling elite. But he isn’t part of the opposition either. He has a foot inside the door, and another outside.

This kind of equivocation must be baffling to a common man not privy to the palace conspiracies and back-stabbings so staple to Pakistan’s politics. If Nawaz is gaining in popularity and esteem with the people of Pakistan, it’s largely because of his moral crusade on behalf of the deposed judiciary and his insistence that only an independent judiciary can provide the best guarantee against autocratic rule. It’s his call to live up to the expectations of the people and give expediency the back seat it rightly deserves.

If Nawaz fails this litmus test of his moral resilience, then, in the eyes of the people of Pakistan, he would be no better, or different, from Zardari, who is desperately trying to take the people of Pakistan up the garden path on the hackneyed slogan of Roti, Kapra aur Makan. For his own sake, and his future in Pakistani politics, Nawaz has to act differently, decisively and unequivocally. The time for him is now, and the window of opportunity may not be there forever.