New rules, new teams, the same old game

The coaches may have been out of the scene for a while but they have been watching the game closely. While they have always had their fun picking the playing eleven, for this once they are letting the referees make the call. The game may be the same but the rules have been redefined and they have been laid out loud and clear: when you are shown the red card, you have to leave the field; no matter how big of a player you are.

The two teams have been lined up and they are down to equal number of players now. With Jahangir Tareen’s disqualification, the PTI is likely to step into a new era of internal dynamics. Rather than his airplane or bankroll, the bigger cost to the party will be the systematic influence he had developed over its organisational structure. The next-in-line to Tareen may be able to get as close to Imran Khan’s ear as Tareen was but to regain his structural hold will be the key. The skipper is an important aide short and the party is an influential secretary general short. Moreover, this may also make the PTI more attractive to the potential ‘electables’ that were otherwise deterred by Tareen’s thick red tape. So, while it may be a setback, it shouldn’t hurt for too long if all goes by the book.

But not everyone goes by the book and certainly not our disqualified prime minister. When Nawaz Sharif was sent packing by the courts, the natural sequence of events was supposed to have Shehbaz Sharif lead the party into the election with the former silently exiting the scene. But Nawaz, it seems, has other plans. He is refusing to take the red card. He is too present in the dugout and is lurking too close to the playing field. He is screaming at the referees way too loud and way too frequently. And, he is irking the coaches off too. But above all, he is costing his team a lot. He is refusing to give the armband away to the new captain or let him pick his playing eleven. He thinks without him there is no team and without the team, there will be no tournament. But this is where he is colossally mistaken.

There are new boys around the block. They may not be a team yet, but they are on road to become one. These are the unknowns that can surprise and even upset the political scene. They are the ones who can choke the capital up or cause resignations out of the ruling party. One can love them or hate them but one simply can’t ignore them. Their line-up is new at the game but it has got some good coaches behind it. They may well be the swing vote come election season.

The post-Tareen PTI will certainly be different. The internal makeover and the external outlook will both change. But, it will soon regain its election momentum. the PTI is becoming very likable very quickly: it doesn’t have any bad blood with the referees or the coaches and it is now flirting with the new boys around the block too. This leaves the PML-N with an important choice to make. Interestingly, the day Tareen was disqualified and Khan was let go; the Supreme Court also decided that the Hudaibiya case isn’t seeing light of the day. This leaves Shehbaz scratch less and naturally the fittest of all Sharifs to lead the party into the election mode. Nawaz can either let the new skipper take over, pick his playing-eleven and get into the election mode, also making it somewhat attractive to any ‘new boys’ who may be eyeing to choose a dugout soon. Or, he can continue with his desperate screams at the referees and the coaches. The new rules of the game don’t seem to have a place for the latter.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2017.

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