What was the raison d’être of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s Friday rally, and what was the message party leader and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif tried to deliver through the mega show that brought public life in the city to a standstill, other than accentuating the stature of his budding rival Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan?
This was the nagging question weighing on the minds of those who left the venue of the rally on Friday evening, seen brimming with huge crowds drawn not only from the city but from all over the province in a show of PML-N’s street power. However, the feedback was not what the Sharifs would have liked, including the one from the party’s own rank and file, not to speak of what the independent observers say.
Generally, it seems that PML-N leaders from top to bottom miserably failed to tell the people and the country’s political leadership what motivated the Sharifs to go for such a grand show when the prospect of any change at the top is pretty far-fetched and general elections are still far off. National Assembly Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters the rally was the last nail in the coffin of President Asif Ali Zardari while Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, another party hardliner, said the rally had nothing to do with Zardari and had been organised against corruption, bad governance and inflation.
So nobody in the PML-N’s camp was sure what the party’s top leadership wanted to get out of the show. Still others said it was the beginning of the “Pakistan Bachao Tehreek”. Though the crowd gathered at the venue was quite enthusiastic, the reaction that came from the party’s insiders was not very rousing. The party leaders did not like the way the Sharifs ended up equating the party with the PTI, inadvertently granting it the status of being the main political entity in the country. “It is like degrading the party by putting up a show in response to the one announced by Imran Khan,” commented one PML-N leader who helped organise the rally. Others did not like the choice of venue.
“The party should have selected Minar-e-Pakistan for this event,” remarked another party leader. Most of the people were surprised to learn that the PML-N picked a congested place for Shahbaz Sharif’s public address. “Probably, the PML-N leaders were not confident about the turnout despite everything they did to mount a successful show,” said a senior politician. Most observers believe that the rally was meant to counter Imran Khan’s effort in the Punjab and deliver a message to those pinning their hopes to the sporting star to make a big dent in the PML-N’s vote bank and following in the province.
“It was an exercise to see if Imran’s juggernaut has made any dent in the PML-N in view of the coming elections,” said a local politician. It seems Imran Khan has trapped the Sharifs. “Did they have an urgent need to prove that they are the real force to be reckoned with in Lahore or Punjab and not Imran Khan, being the largest party from the province?” asked another leader from the city. The conclusion drawn by most observers echoes that very sentiment: it is the paranoia about Imran Khan that forced the Sharifs to test the waters.
Imran Khan recently made it loud and clear that his main target is the PML-N, though he reserves his outbursts at times for President Asif Ali Zardari as well. As such, the unrest in the Sharif camp is quite understandable, especially with rumours that Imran enjoys the backing of the powers that be. As far as the “Go Zardari” part of the rally is concerned, political observers did not expect any spectacular announcements to that end to begin with. They maintained that PML-N leaders would not go very far in their pronouncement at the rally. “Shahbaz Sharif did not say anything in the rally that PML-N leaders have not said before,” commented another Muslim Leaguer.
Walking into Imran Khan’s trap
