- PML-N rendered leaderless
The dramatic way the PML-N announced Mian Shehbaz Sharif’s replacement as Leader of the parliamentary party and as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), indicates two things. First, the PML-N chief is going to be absent from Pakistan for a fairly long time despite his earlier assurance that it would be a “quick visit” which party sources had predicted would extend from 10 to 12 days. Second, the decision to nominate replacements was made without taking party insiders like Marriyum Aurangzeb and Khawaja Saad Rafique, and vocal party MNAs like Javed Latif, on board who have expressed strong reservations on a name. Despite the claim by the PML-N that the opposition was consulted, the PPP claims the nominations were not disused with it despite Mian Shehbaz having won the slot of Leader of the Opposition with PPP’s support
Perhaps the way a mollycoddled Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf has managed to dodge the courts since March 2016 through dilatory tactics, determining the dates that suited him to present himself at the court and then suddenly seeking other dates and being accommodated, encouraged the PML-N leader to spend as much time as possible in freedom and without tension in London. With Nawaz Sharif’s review petition seeking an extension in his six-week bail in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case dismissed by the Supreme Court, the PML-N finds itself in an unenviable position where it is deprived of its topmost leaders. There being no other party leader enjoying an authoritative position, the party faces a tough challenge. Not enjoying the type of hold on the PML-N as Altaf Hussain once had on the MQM, it will not be easy for Mian Shehbaz to run the party from London.
The party faces two challenges simultaneously. First, it has to cope with the repressive measures resorted to by the government, that include intensive probes to find any possible evidence of misdemeanour while keeping several leaders’ names on the ECL, meanwhile hectoring NAB to proceed apace in investigations and the follow-up of cases already initiated by it. Despite occasional hints at starting an anti-government movement, party workers have never in the past stuck out their necks in the absence of the Sharifs. Meanwhile the party is required to maintain its unity. Leaders like Khawaja Saad are not only feeling demoralised after the uncertainty about Shehbaz’s return, but are also criticising the PML-N openly for “not being able to raise its voice” against the “so-called accountability” process and for ignoring the workers who had “given sacrifices” like ex-MNA Hanif Abbasi who had not been treated well by the party. The PML-N faces the negative consequences of dynastic politics where the party head discourages the growth of alternate leadership from outside the family. It remains to be seen if the PML-N can find a way out.