Known strangers

After a prolonged estrangement, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan finally called it quits from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — a party he had helped form along with Nawaz Sharif nearly 35 years ago. The move offers little surprise though, what is curious is the timing of Nisar’s decision which coincided with a massive reshuffle in the party’s organisational setup that saw Maryam Nawaz and some of his opponents in the party taking central roles.

Nisar had distanced himself from the PML-N leadership after Nawaz was removed as Prime Minister in the wake of his disqualification from the Supreme Court in the Panamagate case in July 2017. Nisar resisted overtures from other mainstream parties to join them, and instead remained loyal to Nawaz and the PML-N. Even when Shehbaz Sharif took over as PML-N president, Nisar had opted to back the younger Sharif, hoping for a better future for the party under his leadership. However, true rapprochement was never achieved due to a host of internal rifts — from the party’s decision not to automatically grant Nisar an electoral ticket to the opposition from some other senior leaders of the party. Time and again, Nisar would punctuate his media silence with statements aimed at his party leadership offering advice or warnings.

Some in the PML-N, though, will be happy to see the back of Nisar. Even as the party restructures itself under former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Nisar’s loss will undoubtedly mean that the party will be walking into a new era. Nisar had predicted in the past that his departure — whether voluntary or forced — would be on the basis of principle in relation to certain key party members or on the role of the party in the overall politics of the country. Hence, it means that one or more of Nisar’s predictions about the party have come true: that Maryam Nawaz has taken over all core affairs of the party.

The former interior minister, though, is never one to close his door to reason and therein could lie the PML-N’s salvation.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2019.

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