Still, a force to be reckoned with
It doesn’t hurt to be running the provincial government when you want to have a convention. But to claim that the mammoth PML(N) convention in Faisalabad was merely a patwari-fuelled vehicle is as incorrect as claiming that the delegates at the earlier PTI rally in Lahore were bussed in by the spooks. Two-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif is, after all, a bit of a crowd-puller. Regardless of the number of Go-Zardari-Go slogans at the Dhobi Ghaat in Faisalabad, this was a show of strength in the wake of the aforementioned PTI rally. It was an attempt at mine-is-bigger-than-yours and would serve to motivate the League’s party workers and activists.
In an era, where the illusion of change is a more marketable commodity than change itself, it is notable that the both the major sides of the political divide are now firmly ensconced in what could be broadly classified as anti-establishment positions. If the League’s rally was replete with anti-establishment speeches, the ongoing Mansoor-Ijaz-memo saga signals that all is not well between the PPP and the powers that be either.
In his speech, the erstwhile premier pulled out the populist big guns. He whipped out mention of the motorway, the dams and the nuclear test explosions. He will need far more. For his League is being increasingly walled in. A rather churlish attitude towards those wanting to join the party is not becoming of a party that is all but limited to the Punjab. That, too, when the incumbency factor is going to work against it in the upcoming elections. His younger brother’s attitude towards even his own parliamentarians is also reportedly aloof, what to speak of seeking out chinks in the parliamentary profile of other parties.
The League’s leaders, when discussing the PTI’s rally, say that politics and leadership is more than mere rallies. Perhaps the League should listen to its own advice.