Editorial

In prison again

Nawaz’s way back to prison looks like an act of warming up for confrontation with the government

Editorial May 09, 2019

Has the PML-N finally decided to take to the streets against the PTI-led government? Will the party’s May 7 procession to Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail – where Nawaz Sharif surrendered himself after a six-week break in his prison term – turn out to be a prelude to an anti-government movement? Will Maryam Nawaz’s Twitter handle now stay alive, having been in use only occasionally in recent months? Does the inclusion of Nawaz loyalists in the new party hierarchy points towards a change of strategy from conciliation to confrontation?

Well, that’s exactly what the PML-N seems to be up to – as of now. The party’s show of power on Nawaz’s way back to prison looks like an act of warming up for confrontation with the government. However, the fact that this change of course has only come after the Supreme Court had rejected Nawaz’s plea for a ‘permanent bail for treatment abroad’ is what raises doubts about the very purpose of what appears to be a declaration of defiance.

Frankly speaking, the PML-N politics, of late, is quite confusing – rather erratic. One moment the party is seen on a collision course with the powers that matter, the next it appears trying to strike a political deal with them. A case in point is Nawaz’s GT Road march and his seemingly valiant return to the country from London along with daughter Maryam in the wake of his sentencing by the courts in an accountability reference, only to be followed by a noticeable silence that was indicative of a behind-the-scenes political understanding.

The very ways of the PML-N provide room for party critics to be skeptical of the motives behind the current agitation – and quite rightly so. The question, therefore, is very pertinent: has the PML-N finally decided that it’s time to take the rivals head on, or is it just a means to get into a position to clinch a political deal? Well, only time will provide the answer.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2019.

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