PML-N struggles to manage factions in Punjab

As the PML-N’s political fortunes seemingly continue to evaporate in Punjab, party workers are fuming that Maryam Nawaz and Hamza Shehbaz have washed their hands off their respective responsibilities during such testing times.

Maryam’s sudden counterintuitive decision to leave for London on the eve of recent by-polls and Hamza’s retreat into the shadows has perplexed the party workers who await the much-delayed organisation and restructuring of the party in the political capital amid heavy political weather.

Besides, the challenge to convert the array of constituencies the party rallied against PTI into its own sturdier governing force has become even tougher in the face of growing factionalism in the absence of two Sharif scions.

Sources said that this may be the clearest indication yet that the party’s hopes of maintaining its hold are fading amid its sagging approval ratings in the province.

Party insiders said that apart from the party vice president’s ‘unseasonal’ stay in London, Hamza Shehbaz, who returned from the European capital more than a month ago, is also ‘asleep on the job' and has virtually kept politics at bay.

“The organisation of PML-N Punjab was supposed to commence in mid-October. Both Maryam and Hamza were scheduled to visit districts on the instructions of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif,” sources shared.

Read Fatalism in air as PML-N sees no hope in by-polls

Meanwhile, Maryam had also started the process of confirming the officials regarding the organisation which has now seemingly hit the snags indefinitely.

Worsening the situation is the PML-N’s failure to decide even the district presidency of its home ground despite the passage of a year.

The party has been working without a district president ever since senior leader PML-N Lahore president Mohammad Pervaiz Malik passed away in Lahore last year. One sticking point leading to this indecisiveness is the conflict over the matter.

Sources explained that the names of Malik Saif ul Malook Khokhar and Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan were being mooted for the position. However, one faction of the party is in favour of Mr Khokhar while the other backs Mr Ahmad.

“Due to strong factionalism within the party, the district presidency could not be decided despite the passage of a year.  The party workers are disappointed with the pending process of organising across Punjab, including Lahore,” the sources said who chalked up the defeat in the recent by-polls to the failure to pick a president.