Sharifs shun megalomania

After living in a mode of denial for years, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders have started realising ground realities that the scattered vote bank of the rightwing forces would serve no purpose for the Sharifs but surely benefit the rival Pakistan People’s Party; therefore, it has opened its doors to all the PML-Q dissidents. The PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif in his recent meetings with the leaders of the PML-Likeminded and PML-Q’s independent bloc of senators passed signals that he was even ready to reconcile with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.
The Nawaz’s U-turn from his earlier stance vis-à-vis the PML-Q and other former comrades of Pervez Musharraf makes the PML-N’s intentions clear regarding mustering maximum strength from the rightwing before the next general elections. Though, the PML-Likeminded leaders as well as other PML-Q’s dissident MPAs in the Punjab Assembly and senators in the Upper House of the Parliament have accepted positive overtures of the PML-N, the Chaudhrys of Gujrat along a good number of former and sitting parliamentarians stand loyal to the Pakistan People’s Party, claiming that the PPP and the PML-Q would contest next Senate and general elections jointly.
After succeeding in roping in the Unification Bloc, the PML-Likeminded and the independent bloc of PML-Q senators, the Nawaz-led Muslim League is now wooing men from the Chaudhrys’ camp.
A PML-N insider told Pakistan Today that the party’s central leaders like Ch Nisar, Khwaja Asif, Saad Rafique, Sardar Mehtab and others had been assigned by the Sharifs to rope in other parliamentarians from the PML-Q who were still affiliated with the Chaudhrys. “Our doors are open to all those men of various factions of Muslim League who were not at the centre stage during Musharraf’s regime and never went too far against the PML-N and the Sharif Brothers but we are not ready to shake hands with Chaudhrys, Chattha, Liaqat Jatoi and others of this ilk,” said a PML-N leader in a candid discussion.
He said many sitting and former parliamentarians as well as some of the former district and tehsil nazims were in touch with the PML-N and wanted to join the Sharifs. “In those constituencies, where the PML-N is on a weak pitch and needs the support of a local politician from any faction of Muslim League, it can induct him or her in its ranks irrespective of the fact that he or she belongs to the PML-Q, the PML-Likeminded or any other smaller faction of the Muslim League,” he added. PML-Q Secretary Information Kamil Ali Agha said the next general elections had become an uphill task for the PML-N due to its political isolation. “Where gone the principles of the Sharifs … first they welcomed the turncoats of the Unification Bloc to save their number-weak government in Punjab and now embracing former aides of Musharraf,” he said.
Agha said the PML-Q had already announced an electoral alliance with the PPP; therefore, it could not go into parleys with the PML-N despite latter’s signals of rapprochement. The apparent political isolation of the PML-N pushed the Sharifs to mark black day of October 12 military coup along with long-time associates of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf like Kashmala Tariq and Salim Saifullah. The change of heart towards the Muslim Leaguers, who joined hands with former military dictator after October 12 military takeover, one hand negates the PML-N’s claims that its doors were permanently shut to dictator’s associates and on the other exposes deepening sense of isolation among the party’s top brass, which compelled the Sharifs to hug those who previously embraced their most disliked man Musharraf.
PML-N Deputy Secretary Information Khurram Dastgir Khan said the electoral alliance of the PML-Q with Zardari-led PPP had forced old Muslim Leaguers to see towards the PML-N. “Various dissident leaders of the PML-Q, including members of the parliament and the provincial assemblies, are approaching us as they feel betrayed over the Chaudhrys’ move of forging an alliance with a traditional rival, the PPP,” he said. Khurram said the PML-N had yet not accepted the PML-Q as a political party; therefore, it was engaging individuals and had not engaged the PML-Q in talks, adding that his party would continue engaging all those leaders and parliamentarians of the PML-Q, who were against Zardari-Chaudhrys alliance.