Exactly in the span of a year, it has been a triple whammy for Nawaz Sharif. His comeuppance is complete or nearly so pending the verdict for his party, PML (N), in the general election on July 25.

Having been disqualified by Pakistan’s Supreme Court from holding the office of Prime Minister (July 2017) in the context of the Panama scam, he was subsequently disqualified from holding any position in his party. This at once rendered the PML(N) without a leader.

Setbacks have piled on setbacks with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) now sentencing him to ten years in jail on corruption charges, most particularly the ownership of flats in England. And the damage caused by the setbacks might turn out to be almost insurmountable both at the political and personal levels.

Politically, the jail sentence is bound to have an impact on the rudderless PML (N) in the election. And whether the denouement of a leader will eventually benefit the likes of Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) can only be speculated upon though such an outcome may well be agreeable to the Rawalpindi GHQ.

Also sentenced is Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, who was being groomed to helm the party. With Sharif now in England to be by the side of his wife in her final hours, the judgment has been pronounced in absentia. He has pledged to return to Pakistan, there to face almost certain arrest and then face the law and the Constitution.

Conceding that Pakistan’s democracy has been historically fragile, there really is no option but to surrender to the judiciary, which has now emerged as the second major player ~ besides the military ~ in the power play. Ahead of the elections, the Supreme Court has been able to bring a former Head of State (Musharraf) and Head of Government to their knees.

The PML (N) is scarcely in a position to firm up a response to recent developments before July 25. The successive disqualifications of its leader have decidedly overshadowed the campaign.

Even Shahbaz Sharif lacked the nerve to make a stout defence of his elder brother. The chief minister of the dominant province of Punjab has criticised the process followed by the NAB, but has been silent on the deeper crisis that plagues the party.

The verdict could not have been pronounced at a more impropitous juncture ~ barely a fortnight before the election. To that can be added the fact that the PML (N) is a house divided. No attempt has as yet been made by the family to explain, let alone defend, the ownership of flats in London.

The plot has thickened with the seven-year jail term for daughter Maryam. With the one-time leader wobbly at the knees, the family has its back to the wall. The party may yet reap some benefit from any sympathy its leader’s plight evokes, but it is uncertain if the leader after whom it is named will be able to retrieve his position.