Time to change course
Wajid Zia’s appearances before NAB (in Rawalpindi and Lahore) mark the beginning of the second phase of legal proceedings against Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz’s ouster marked the end of the first phase, of course. Also, Maryam Nawaz’s road show didn’t just kick off the NA-120 campaign, it also marked the next part of the party’s political strategy – manufacturing a confrontation with the judiciary – which the former PM started with his GT Road drive. Just where the ruling party is headed, though, seems difficult to ascertain. Legally in a tight corner, the party leadership most likely found appealing to the masses as the only doable option.
But in playing the victim PML-N will need to continuously turn up the heat on its narrative of a grand conspiracy; of ‘those five judges’ caving in to pressure from the ‘establishment’ to derail democracy, etc, all over again. And that, in turn, risks the rhetoric turning into a self fulfilling reality. Surely nobody in the party thinks the judiciary, or the establishment for that matter, will stay silent after being dragged on the streets for too long. Perhaps there is truth in allegations that stirring inter-institutional friction, too, is part of the party strategy, even though the party is still in power.
The PML-N leadership would do well, in this instance at least, to take a leaf out of the PPP leadership’s book. As Asif Zardari implied the other day, Peoples Party never resorted to rallies or disruption despite their fair share of dishonourable exits. While it would have been better if the honourable judges hadn’t put their personal ‘Godfather’ references on record, PML-N must stop selling the narrative of senior judges conspiring to pick off senior politicians. In the real case of bad blood between institutions, which seems the logical outcome of posturing, it is PML-N’s own government that will lose the most. Better to proceed with the legal case, and with the usual election campaigning, and change course before the ruling party gets lost in its own labyrinth.