Meanwhile, in Noon Land

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away from reality lived a political party called the PML-N. Far from the madding crowd of the PTI, far from the pavilions of a turbulent economy and far from the fertile stomping ground of Punjab, the party of the Sharifs walked the land like a zombie on Prozac.

What went wrong?

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is a shadow of itself. It’s a party in slumber; an outfit looking for moorings; an organisation lost in the mist of adversity; a family limited company with no family in sight; a team with no captain and an entity groping in the dark for a future. It’s no fun being a Noonie nowadays.

The party is not unfamiliar with adversity. Nawaz Sharif as prime minister was first thrown out of office and his government dissolved in 1993 by then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan. The Sharifs made a thumping comeback in 1997 but in 1999 Nawaz was ousted in a coup by General Pervez Musharraf and sentenced before flying out in exile to the gilded cage of Saudi Arabia. He was back again with his family as a result of the infamous NRO to reclaim Punjab for his brother in the 2008 elections. After returning to the Prime Minister’s office in 2013, he ruled the Centre till chucked out for the third time by the Supreme Court last year.

It was the 1993-1997 period that Sharifs were first out of power simultaneously at the Centre and Punjab. The second such period was 1999-2008. This is the third time that Sharif and his party are facing a similar fate. And yet, something is different now.

In 1993, the party lost but kept plotting a comeback while tearing into the PPP government with every tool, every plot and every conspiracy at its disposal. In 1999, the party was ousted but successfully armed itself with the democracy narrative that ensured it always remained a primary alternative to the military ruler.

This year however, the party lost the elections, but has also lost its bearings. It appears to have no strategy, no direction, no plan, and no strength for a fight. It’s almost like it has resigned to its fate.

What more could Imran Khan want? He is batting on a slow wicket with no fielders. But he’s still struggling with boundaries.

In Noon Land meanwhile, trouble is brewing like aromatic coffee. For a cadre that has always been comfortable working with the weave of the system and not against it, this here now is alien territory. Things were so much simpler in the good old days of the bad old days: in the nineties the Noonies could always find conspirators within the system to lend them a hand to hold and a shoulder to lean on. The Sharifs and their men and women may have been out of power, but they were never really out of favour. Opposition was what they were expected to do between two stints in power.

The Musharraf years were even less complicated. It was a straightforward civilian-versus-military equation; a democracy-versus-dictatorship balance sheet; and a good-versus-evil binary in which the Sharifs had to wait for the democratic dividend to fall in their laps. Then they would be kings again.

But Kings landing changed when the Lannisters arrived.

Now the Noonies are out of power, out of favour and out of steam. This time there is no civil-military binary and no wink-and-nod timeout in the political wilderness. This time there is no Sharif to do the train march of the nineties and no Begum Kulsoom to charge up the loyalists at the turn of the millennium. This time the dynasty has lost its voice while the flag is held high by a handful of loyal knights Shahid Khaqan, Ahsan Iqbal, Miftah Ismail and Marriyum Aurangzeb.

The party is staring into the glowering eyes of an existential crisis. This crisis has spawned a rather grim reality: The PML-N has been truly ejected out of the Establishment universe through a democratic-judicial nozzle and its leadership is entrapped in the jaws of a system whose growl has a tone of finality. The jaws will not loosen, but neither will the teeth chew.

The worst kinds of troubles come with nuance. The PML-N has enough mandate not to become a martyr but not enough to fight a good fight; the Sharifs have enough freedom not to cry persecution but not enough to provide leadership; the party rank and file has enough mobilisation not to be ignored but not enough to actually matter on the streets. It is a state of being that the PML-N is not used to dealing with, let alone flourishing in. The party is riding a stationary bike — pedalling furiously but going nowhere.

And nowhere is usually not a good destination for a political party. Here then is the danger that Noonies find themselves in: a family leadership that is uncertain of its future and a party cadre that cannot agree on whether to fight or go in for peace. The result is an opposition that has lost its mojo. The party that roared across the nineties and brawled across the twenty first century is today shadow boxing in the wind. It is deprived of all fight, all bite and all appetite.

Visualise Nawaz Sharif leading a crowd of tens of thousands across barricades in 2009 and marching on GT Road towards Islamabad. Visualise the sea of humanity pouring into the streets and joining up with the leader who could command such a mammoth following.

Now visualise the party today: the lonely figures of Shahid Khaqan, Ahsan Iqbal, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Miftah Ismail taking on the combined might of the galaxy while the apex leadership struggles to fend off legal troubles. There is silence in the ranks. Or is it confusion? Or anxiety? Or a complete and utter lack of direction? No one knows. Not even the Noonies.

The party may yet fight on. It may yet claw its way back to centre stage. And it may yet persevere against these headwinds. But for this resurrection to happen, someone will need to provide bold, clear and sustained leadership. Till that happens, Imran Khan should enjoy batting without a fielder in the stadium. Perhaps he may score a boundary at some point.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2018.

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