To be or not to be is still the question for the party of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. This narrative or that? Survive to fight or fight to survive? The Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) remains on the horns of what looks increasingly like its existential dilemma.
The gridlock between the party’s pro-appeasement and pro-confrontation blocs has persisted despite several rounds of debates lately in order to reach a consensus on a single narrative for the next general elections. Apparently, it was all in vain.
The very recent diatribe of Maryam Nawaz against the outgoing spymaster Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed for his alleged ‘role’ in making Avenfield case against her and her father Nawaz Sharif has landed the party’s ‘reconciliation’ group in an uncomfortable position.
She made these assertions in her application filed with the Islamabad High Court to seek annulment of Avenfield case where she and her father along with her husband Safdar were sentenced.
In her application she says this has proved that her case is ‘politically engineered’. “Not only that General Faiz Hameed made the case, but [he] also ran it and had us convicted through the court of Judge Bashir,” she asserted.
Her direct attack on the establishment has provided her rivals with enough ammo to take her to task for what they call ‘undermining and weakening’ the national security institutions. The government ministers believe her onslaught against the feared security agency has just one aim – to serve the agenda of the enemy countries which have launched an international campaign to malign Pakistan.
Maryam’s hard-hitting press conference was not received well by her own party cadres as infighting has raged to new levels where both the groups have seemingly refused to budge on their stance.
Recently, PML-N MNA Mian Javed Latif created an uproar when he took the battle of narratives to the next level, saying there are some leaders in the party on the ‘assignment’ alluding to none other than PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif and Khawaja Asif who he said wanted to ‘distort’ the narrative of the party (respect the ballot).
In an interview to Samaa TV, he alleged that these people are on the assignment from those who do not believe in law and the Constitution. He also warned that these leaders must ‘remember the fate of Chaudhry Nisar’.
Maryam Nawaz made similar remarks during a meeting where she said ‘some people are afraid of those who are afraid of us’.
Close aides of Shahbaz Sharif say he took offence at these remarks and remained absent from a couple of party meetings of local leadership until his elder brother Nawaz Sharif agreed that Javed Latif be handed a show-cause notice.
However, there are reports that Javed Latif has refused to submit a reply to the show cause served on him by the party president, Shahbaz Sharif despite a reminder. Some party leaders believe Javed Latif has a full support of Maryam Nawaz group.
Ahsan Iqbal, General Secretary of PML-N, told Dawn newspaper that a reminder has been sent to Javed Latif to respond to the show-cause notice issued by the party president. Even after months of wrangling the PML-N has failed to resolve the issues of narratives. It seems Maryam Nawaz is in no mood to abandon the stance of her father.
However, her uncle Shahbaz Sharif along with his son Hamza Shahbaz and the supporters of the narrative of avoiding confrontation with the establishment believe the party’s quest for power needs a rethink.
Hamza Shahbaz embarked upon a voter mobilisation campaign after a nod from his father that he has a bright chance to grab the most coveted seat of Chief Minister in case the party comes to power after 2023 elections in Punjab.
Party insiders say Hamza was reluctant to participate in the public meeting kicked off by the senior lot of the party until he received a clear signal about his position after the next elections.
There were reports of slogans like ‘chief minister Hamza Shahbaz’ in most of the rallies he addressed in parts of the Southern Punjab which is considered a bit weak area of PML-N. On this count, the situation is seemingly clear for now although his father finds himself in a bind where he cannot push his own narrative strongly enough to overpower his elder brother’s confrontational stance.
Although most of the party leaders believe that the infighting may hurt, the party can go on with both the narratives for next elections taking mileage of the poor governance of the incumbent PTI government. But, the top leadership will have to resolve the leadership fiasco sooner than later lest the largest party of the country fall apart.
If that comes to pass, the blame will rest entirely with the leadership.
