The PML-N goes down the rabbit hole

• Hazards of political isolation

Things continue to move as planned by the Great Mind. The provinces where the course of political developments has to be regulated before elections are Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. KP does not need any rectification of course either by the SC or someone else.

After being removed and disqualified Nawaz Sharif is acting like a loose cannon. To cut him down to size his power base has to be curtailed. The process of the breakup of the PMLN which began in January in Balochistan continues slowly but relentlessly. In February and March three PML-N MNAs deserted the party to join the PTI. After the resignation of three Balochistan MNAs from the PML-N early this month, six MNAs from South Punjab have also jumped the ship. The former trio is sitting coolly in the waiting lounge. The South Punjab group of turncoats is sitting in another corner temporarily labeled Janoobi Punjab Sooba Mahaz under the supervision of a nonagenarian tribal chief. Curiously all the dissidents have resigned only a few months before the induction of the interim set up after drawing full benefits from the government and utilising the last installment of development funds. The party being still in power and capable of obliging its supporters, one will have to wait till the induction of the caretaker set up to realise the full scope of desertions. Marriyum Aurangzeb has called them “lotas.” But these deserters were assiduously courted and warmly welcomed into the PML-N fold by the ideological leader of the party to flaunt his big mandate.

The plan made by the Great Mind required a breakup of the MQM in Sindh and a realignment of its legislators. The party subsequently split up in acrimony. Those who were fighting like enemies within the MQM have overnight turned into bosom friends after joining the PSP. There is now at least one independent group in Sindh, another in Balochistan and yet another in South Punjab. There is little hope of any one of these joining the PPP or the PTI. The dissident groups could on a signal tom the Great Mind get together to form the King’s party.