Nawaz in his labyrinth
Though much attention is being paid to the tit-for-tat outbursts between force of nature Zulfiqar Mirza and the MQM, another such dialogue has ensued between PML(N)’s Chief Nawaz Sharif and President Zardari. Whereas in the Karachi quarrel, the MQM could not quite muster a fitting response to Mirza’s showmanship, the retaliation in this other spat has been more than adequate.
The reason for this is President Zardari’s knowledge of what makes his adversary tick. Had he also launched off into a matching diatribe, the PML(N) supremo wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. But it is a zeroing in on Leaguer’s worst fear that did the trick. Instead of name calling, the response was patronising. Be wise, advised Zardari, lest we don’t get to meet even in a jail cell. Yes, the allusions to military rule are going to give the former prime minister some quiet moments of circumspection. The president, his other flaws (and they are many) notwithstanding, can hold his own much better in the slammer than the Leaguer. At the moment, it is Sharif’s effervescent (and admirable, let no one deny it) anti-military stance, that is a red rag to the military rather than “security threat” PPP.
The elder Sharif is beleaguered on other fronts as well. His presence in Balochistan stands at next to nothing. He is set to lose his smattering of supporters in Sindh, with even his former chief minister threatening to leave. And his already diminutive presence in KP has lost out to the other League in the whole Hazara thing.
Speaking of the Q League, its seat-to-seat adjustment with the PPP in the next elections, as was hinted by Chaudhry Shujaat the other day, might prove to be disastrous for the N in the Punjab as well. To make matters worse, a small portion of its rightist vote bank (critical in a tight race) is set to be chipped away at by the likes of Tehrik-e-Insaf and the Jamaat. The number of national assembly seats with which the N League candidates won by a margin narrower than 2500 votes is large enough for Raiwind to lose sleep over.
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