PML-N strategy: No immediate campaign against PTI govt on cards

Sharif’s party not to antagonise establishment, judiciary; to wait for suitable time to run anti-govt drive

LAHORE: Despite Nawaz Sharif’s conviction in Al-Azizia case, his party – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) – will not run any pre-election-style campaign against the establishment or judiciary as it wants to avoid further worsening of the crisis it is facing, said a senior PML-N leader.

“The party is to use different forums to expose the faulty accountability system without launching any street movement against the government right now,” he told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity.

“Come what may, the party has already decided not to criticise the state institutions the way it did before the July 25 general election. Criticising the state institutions has gotten the party into deep trouble,” he said.



He said what Sharif did before polls was also necessary to expose the political victimisation. He said how the PML-N could have asked for votes if it had not questioned fairness of the verdicts against ex-PM.

He said Sharif’s narrative did play well in the election but it came with a heavy price. He said the post-election scenario is that the party does not need to raise the temperature now.

“Since the election is over, it is not easy to mobilise workers. Any abrupt emotional call would lead the party into an embarrassing situation,” he added.

He said in view of this, the party will from December 30 start a public contact drive to gradually mobilise the workers. After the party feels that it has amassed enough support for itself to run a street movement against the government, it will wait for a suitable time.

He said the party would wait until fuel price hikes, electricity price hike, inflation or any other issue could be snowballed into a movement. “Using that issue as a prime cause, the party will run a movement against the government,” he added.

He said since there was a long legal battle ahead so the party will not confront with the judiciary. He said there is an understanding that Maryam Nawaz too will avoid any controversial statements.

“The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has yet to decide its future strategy to deal with the corruption cases against its leaders. The PML-N will change its strategy, if PPP decides to join hands with us in running a movement against this government,” he added.

Former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal during a TV interview on Tuesday said the party will not run any movement against the PTI government. “We don’t want to give the PTI government any pretext to blame us for their failure.  We will want the government to function and fail on its own,” he added.