Badly managed optics

Leaving aside political sympathies and allegiances the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ‘homecoming’ rally that is proceeding down the GT Road is something of a shambles that is now marred by tragedy. The shambles is the result of poor communications, changes of plan and party workers being out of the loop, which has resulted in embarrassingly small crowds in at least one of the scheduled stops. There are reports of anger in the senior leadership of the PML-N. Better would have been expected of a party that has held sway for so long in Punjab, and should have been more able to organise what is a complex operation with overarching security implications than it has.

Of greater import is the way that the death of a young boy was handled. The precise circumstances that led to his death are not clear but he was struck by one or more vehicles in the PML-N convoy and then his urgent medical needs were ignored; this despite there being ambulances, doctors and paramedical personnel close at hand. The subsequent claiming of the dead child as a ‘martyr’ to the PML-N cause was not only shameful but disgusting.

The reactions to the death by the PML-N leadership were either crude and ham-fisted or simply hollow. None of them emerged well. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanullah went so far as to refuse to accept that the boy died as a result of being struck by a vehicle in the PML-N convoy; and it was the railway minister who claimed him as ‘the first martyr of our movement.’ Nothing could have been more cruel or tasteless. There will be offers of compensation to the bereaved family; and well-covered visits to their house by the ‘grieving’ Mr Sharif and his entourage. But the optics are all poor. This is no victory parade; it is crude populist politicking by a party that is beginning to fray at the edges with a leader that now hangs in limbo.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2017.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.