Is the transformation genuine?
Throughout the1990s the PPP and PML-N were involved in a no-holds-barred slugfest that helped the establishment to prematurely remove them from power twice apiece. After every election the routine was blaming the victor of foul play and challenge the winning party’s right to rule. There was horse trading, no confidence moves and continuous attempts to enlist the army’s support. Whosoever was in power instituted false cases against the opposition leaders. Accountability was a tool to either win over legislators or to punish the ones who refused to fall in line. The political rivalry was turned into personal vendetta, and working relations between the government and the opposition were non-existent. Things changed a little during the 2008 -13 era when the governments at the center and the provinces, with the exception of Balochistan, avoided from persecuting opponents.
The way Nawaz Sharif is currently interacting with other political parties would have been unbelievable in the1990s. At the height of its campaign, after Imran Khan’s unfortunate fall from a lifter, the PML-N suspended electioneering for a day. As an expression of goodwill Shahbaz was sent over to the hospital. Post-election, it is being declared by the ‘N’ quarters,President Zardari, would not be disturbed. Nawaz has called on Imran Khan, carrying with him a bouquet of flowers despite the PTI chief having pulled no punches against the PML-N leadership during the campaign and subsequently blaming it for selective rigging. Then throwing a spanner in the JUI-F’s works which had made Nawaz an offer of joining hands to form the government in KP, the PML-N leader told the media that the PTI being the largest single party in the province had the right to rule KP. There are reports of the PML-N meditating to offer the important position of the speaker of National Assembly to PKMAP chief Mahmud Khan Achakzai and the chair of the National Assembly’s Accountability Committee to Imran Khan.
Many find it difficult to believe what they are seeing: the tiger has changed its stripes. The one who previously wanted to be the lone master of all that he surveyed, seems keen to share. Is this transformation genuine, the skeptics wonder? And will it last? If it is for real, will the PLM-N chief be able to carry along an overwhelming lot of shortsighted and short-tempered leaders of his party? Only two years back, Shahbaz Sharif had vowed to drag Zardari in the streets of Lahore while quite a few in the PML-N hierarchy became hysteric over the so-called Memogate affair. This shift in manner and attitude is welcome though, for given the challenges the need to promote tolerance cannot be overstated. The issue of power and gas shortages has to be tackled, the terrorist menace has to be decimated and the economy put back on its rails. Agitation is the last thing the upcoming government can afford. As the example of Turkey shows, a government that can bring peace, develop the economy and improve people’s livelihood can keep the army under the civilian control. Let us hope the PML-N maintains the policy of reconciliation with its political opponents, media and the courts throughout its tenure.
