Nisar should join PTI

• If he hasn’t already

More than Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan’s decision to contest the upcoming elections as an independent candidate from NA-59, NA-63, PP-10 and PP-12, it is the manner in which his divorce with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has become, which is ugly.

Nisar has flirted with the idea of leaving the PML-N from the eve of the Panama Papers verdict against Nawaz Sharif, to the party interviewing candidates for election tickets – a process that the former interior minister considered inferior, nay insulting, to him.

It is evident that he has been holding out for a bigger status in a post-Nawaz PML-N, which he quite clearly more than just hinted at, in his press conference the day before the Panama Papers verdict.

First the PM nomination, then the PML-N president position, all senior posts came and went, with Nisar hoping that his tantrum would merit a party mission to woo him back. That never came.

Even so, with events transpiring quick and fast, Nisar held out till the very end to see what the party leadership makes of his almost year old stretch of throwing toys out of the pram.

His statement comparing the faults in PTI and the PML-N would have only made sense if it had been made after he had formally joined the former

With both parties having made their position clear in the ticket distribution, it is clear that it’s Nisar who has come out the worse. And this is largely because of what he has said in the aftermath of the parting of ways, and the fact that he had shrouded his tantrums in a flimsy garb of principles.

Let’s look at some of the things he has said since announcing himself as an independent candidate.

“I have decided to contest elections as an independent candidate. If there are ten faults in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), there might be one hundred faults in PML-N.”

“Nawaz Sharif, who once opposed PPP’s slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto by saying that women should not govern the country, has now foisted his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif on the party.”

“These Sharifs will not able to show their faces anywhere if I decide to open my mouth.”

The greatest irony in all such situations is that the person in question doesn’t even think about the fact that they won’t have the answer to the simplest and most obvious question: why didn’t you speak up earlier?

The fact that the PML-N is a “family party” has only just dawned upon Nisar? And does his statement about Maryam Nawaz not convey that it is actually he who is more misogynistic by having a problem with both women in question, but Nawaz was only opportunistically so?

Of course, we’re getting into the nitty-gritties of words that Nisar clearly didn’t give much thought to. The equation is very simple: Nisar wanted bigger role in PML-N, no one offered it, so the two cannot coexist.

Now to the more pertinent question: What next?

Nisar has been on the verge of joining the PTI for as long as he has been on the verge of leaving the PML-N. So it surely must be a matter of time then.

When asked if he was considering joining PTI during the rant against the Sharifs, Nisar said: “You focus on the elections, [I] will decide what is better.”

What is better, for everyone – including quite possibly the PML-N as well – is for Nisar to formally join the PTI. He couldn’t do so in time to get a PTI ticket, but will definitely do so, should he win and the PTI is leading – or a part of – a potential coalition government.

His statement comparing the faults in PTI and the PML-N would have only made sense if it had been made after he had formally joined the former.

Now Nisar has to wait for how each party in the love-hate triangle between the PML-N, PTI and himself fares, which will eventually determine where he is in a couple of months’ time.

But if you know any bookies taking bets, place all you can spare on PTI.