Healing the rift permanently

No matter how hard the leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz argue against fissures within the ruling party, discordant voices are shrill enough to be heard across the divide. Their message is both loud and clear and aimed at convincing the ousted prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, that excessive and undue focus on personal matters was hurting the country’s as well as the party’s interests. This is simple but sound advice and crucial to leading the ruling party out of its state of confusion. Of late in particular party leaders seem to be talking at each other rather than to each other. Even as other political groupings have been revving up their political engines by unveiling their manifestoes and starting modest mass contact campaigns, the ruling PML-N seems quite listless by comparison — weighed down by its own woes. As the next election draws closer — the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) says it could be as soon as July 2018 — the PML-N may dig itself deeper into a hole. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi ruffled plenty of party feathers when he recently talked of a technocrat government and the remarks were not taken too well by other political outfits.

At this juncture, it is important for the PML-N leaders to revisit their harsh, uncompromising stance against the superior judiciary and the establishment. They must understand that the ouster of the prime minister was not triggered by conspiracies and elaborate plots, as acknowledged by the party’s stalwarts. Now is as good as any time to face up to this reality. By virtue of following the advice of saner elements within the PML-N and ending the confrontation with other state institutions, the ruling party could redeem its reputation. This ought to manifest itself in a display of deep and abiding respect for all state institutions. Respect, after all, begets respect. It must be understood that state institutions should be adequately authorised and empowered for the exercise of horizontal accountability. 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2017.

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