Difference emerges: Stop disrespecting institutions, Shehbaz tells party leaders

Sharif brothers’ conflicting approaches causing division in PML-N

LAHORE: The expected incoming president of the PML-N – Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif – has distanced himself and his team from the policy of confrontation adopted by his elder brother, former party president and ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Shehbaz on Saturday issued a statement appealing to all party leaders and office-holders to abstain from making statements that can directly or indirectly be construed as being disrespectful to state institutions.

Maintaining that Pakistan cannot afford a clash between state institutions, he appealed to party supporters to abstain from constructing any such narrative that could damage the dignity of state institutions. It was the first such public statement from Shehbaz.

According to sources, the PML-N members close to Shehbaz had adopted a moderate approach throughout the Panama Papers saga. They said this was the time when many leaders, a few senior but mostly younger ones, in the federal government were loudly denouncing some state institutions.



The sources said that the party initially abstained from making any statements on the Panama Papers case until the very end when the disqualification of Nawaz became very likely. They said that even then, only Law Minister Rana Sanaullah came on the front foot.

However, after the disqualification and Nawaz’s return to Lahore, more provincial leaders wanted to join in on the tirade against institutions to show loyalty to Nawaz, said the sources, adding that this was the very aggression which ‘earned’ two party workers a state and a federal ministry.

According to the sources, party leaders and workers in the Punjab government were informed time and again to avoid making confrontational statements. During a party meeting presided over by then PM Nawaz in Islamabad in July, Shehbaz openly criticised the policy of aggression towards state institutions.



The same opinion of avoiding clashes with institutions was shared by former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar, who has distanced himself from the party leadership. Many other leaders in the party also share the same opinion, but were unwilling to speak their minds before Nawaz, a party source revealed.

Senator Zafar Ali Shah was one of a very few senior party figures to have openly criticised the policy of hostility. He had blamed Nawaz’s advisers for creating this situation. Interestingly, this was also the opinion of Shehbaz’s wife Tehmina Durrani, who had publically suggested that Nawaz fire his advisers. Many believe she was speaking on her husband’s behalf.

Nawaz, during his ‘homecoming’ rally, on multiple occasions commented on the Supreme Court judges and even questioned their capabilities in an indirect manner. He, in an apparent reference to the military establishment, even accused certain powerful individuals of weakening democracy and disrespecting the mandate given to him by the public as prime minister of Pakistan. Similarly, he claimed that the decision of the Supreme Court had been rejected by the citizenry.



Nawaz also recently told foreign media that  said it was not his responsibility alone to prevent a clash among state institutions, implying they had also done him wrong. This line of aggression was also towed by several party leaders, including those from Punjab.

Special Assistant to the CM on Information and Culture Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan said that leaders from Punjab stand behind the policy given to them by the chief minister. He said that a moderate attitude should be adopted instead of a hawkish approach. He added that criticism of the decision is everyone’s right, but that does not justify disrespecting state institutions.

Party sources revealed that Shehbaz wanted to publicly oppose the policy of hostility to project himself as the ‘voice of reason’ in the party. They said Shehbaz on August 15 also rejected the practice of individualism, which the media was attributing to Nawaz.

They said Shehbaz wants Nawaz to follow the legal course of action for his cases without endangering the party and bringing any disorder in the country, because his policy of aggression had already brought rifts within the party, a recent example of which occurred between Chaudhry Nisar and Pervaiz Rashid, the latter being very close to Nawaz.

They said this rift was only the tip of the iceberg.

Separately, the Sharif brothers have cancelled a planned meeting with the family of a child that was run over by Nawaz’s motorcade. The CM office could only confirm that the meeting was cancelled, while adding that they had not been informed why.