Nawaz’s comeback strategy

Itchy trigger finger

A few senior PML-N leaders are not in agreement, to say the least, with Nawaz Sharif’s rather gung-ho comeback strategy. He raised a small storm on the GT Road long drive immediately following the disqualification. And ever since, he’s been steadily raising the pitch of his rhetoric. As mentioned before in this space, the change from “why was I disqualified?” to “I know why I was disqualified” and “I was going to be disqualified anyway” is particularly telling. The front-foot approach was most likely fine-tuned in London, as Nawaz tended to his wife and called a high-profile PML-N huddle away from the hustle and bustle of Islamabad and Lahore.

Ch Nisar, though, has been the odd voice of reason as senior party leaders – especially the new, more vocal ones – carry out a frontal assault on the judiciary coupled with flank attacks on the ‘establishment’. Shahbaz Sharif, too, came out in the open the other day. That he advised restraint just as Nawaz had retaken the reins of the party, and was set to read out another one of his fiery speeches, betrayed considerable angst on part of the old guard. Of course, Kh Saad Rafique – hardly PML-N’s gentlest old-timer – only confirmed such doubts by implying that, given the circumstances, discretion might be the better part of valour after all.

Yet, despite the apparent cleavage, Nawaz stuck to his guns in Lahore yesterday. Both ‘thank you NA-120’ and ‘people’s verdict overrides the court’s decision’ were expected themes. But this time the former prime minister went further. He made very charged and animated workers promise that they would rally to his call whenever it comes. Strangely, some of the main players of the agitation he’s apparently building also hold crucial positions in the government. In stirring up a serious confrontation with the superior judiciary, while dragging the establishment in at the same time, and also causing his own party’s government considerable trouble, Nawaz’s strategy seems to add to everybody’s troubles on the road to the election. Perhaps he should listen to those who’ve been with him the longest, and resist that itchy trigger finger.