The art of the possible

Still not enough for the League, though
There are twenty thousand leagues under the sea and these are only two. But still, a feud that took two decades for the two sides to bury the hatchet. Nawaz Sharif and the PML(J)’s Hamid Nasir Chatta are now friends. The N League and the PML (Like-Minded) also signed an agreement regarding an arrangement in the upcoming national polls.
The N League is the biggest of the Leagues and, on its own, is the second largest political force in the country. But it still can’t cut it on its own in the next elections. This agreement with the Like-Minded group also won’t do the required trick.
The PML(N) has seen better days. The surprise of the 2008 elections was the rather spectacular performance of the League. It caught everyone off guard. This led to an impression that, in the yin-yang of politics, the next government was the League’s. That might not be true and the Raiwind brothers know this.
There are several reasons for this. Since the League runs the government in the province, an incumbency factor runs against them as well. It really doesn’t have its act together in other provinces so there is little or no capitalising on the incumbency factors of the respective governments there. Secondly, an often overlooked stellar performance is that of the PML(Q). Despite the Musharraf baggage, the party managed to emerge as the third largest parliamentary presence in the national assembly. This time round, they are to pack quite a punch. Many will leave their party, yes, but many will stay. If these candidates, proven by a Darwinian process to be heavyweights in their respective constituencies, eke out an alliance with the PPP, there could be trouble.
Outside the province, the League is desperately trying to woo partners for it is too late in the day to try to go for organic growth. It has, however, managed to absorb the whole of the Sindh National Front, for whatever it is worth. In KP, it might finally strike a deal to get itself some seats from the Pushtun belt for the first time in over a decade but they will still be a smattering in the larger battle between the ANP-PPP alliance and the religious parties and newcomers like Imran Khan.
Perhaps if the Sharifs hadn’t taken such an intransigent stance towards their former party members, the League would have been in a far better position now. Holding grudges in politics can hold you back.