- Who will lead the grand alliance?
On Wednesday Nawaz Sharif received reports about the situation on the ground from party leaders as well as from PML-N’s city mayors who are supposed to keep their finger on the people’s pulse. He directed those who called on him in jail to do two things. First, to continue protests against rigging. Second, to actively participate in the activities connected with the multi-party conference. Is the PML-N prepared to do the job?
The PML-N leadership has been unable to make rigging an electrifying public issue. After it decided to join the assemblies and raise the matter there, its deputies are required to put forth their stand at the parliamentary forum in a persuasive manner, avoiding sloganeering or resorting to verbal attacks on opponents. The PML-N leadership has in past grossly neglected the Parliament with the result that few PML-N MNAs are capable of taking part in serious debate and discussion. Unless they can project their point of view effectively, other political concerns will crop up in days to come assuming greater relevance and eclipsing the question of rigging.
To keep rigging a public issue, a lot of work will have to be done outside the Parliament. The outside endeavour will involve painstaking efforts to collect vital evidence related to rigging, take it to the ECP, courts and media to prove that large scale rigging has turned the vanquished into victors by sleight of hand.
Shahbaz Sharif is facing at least three major enquiries in the NAB. He has simply failed to play the central role in the grand alliance. Who would replace him as the leader of the PML-N in case he is incapacitated to lead the party? Among the senior party leaders Kh Saad Rafique is facing NAB inquiries. Kh Asif is missing in action. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Khurram Dastgir are not working overnight for the party. Ahsan Iqbal, Pervez Rashid, Marriyum Aurangzeb, and Mushahid Hussain have been pushed aside in the grand alliance. Who will fight the PML-N’s case if its leader has little time or is missing and the party does not have a well-knit team of articulate representatives to project its stand?
