Spur-of-the-moment decision

Nawaz ends his race to premiership for fourth time

ISLAMABAD:

By 10pm Tuesday night, no one knew in the PML-N what the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was thinking. On the television screens, his younger brother and former premier, Shehbaz Sharif, was busy cajoling people with his usual jugglery of words and assuring them that he would urge his elder brother to accept the position of prime minister of Pakistan for the fourth time.

Little did he know that Nawaz was watching his news conference live and, as the party spokesperson revealed, he decided that his race to the PM House should end here. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, she added. He asked the party spokesperson, Marriyum Aurangzeb, to draft a tweet and announce that the PML-N’s candidate for premiership would be none other than Shehbaz Sharif, and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, would become Punjab’s chief minister.

For years, the party and its leaders have been shouting slogans of “Wazeer-e-Azam, Nawaz Sharif” – PM [would be] Nawaz Sharif. Even, when Shehbaz was the prime minister and during the election campaign, the party projected Nawaz as the next prime minister if PML-N comes to power. However, it seems, the split mandate and the last-minute adjustments left him with no other option but to nominate his brother and daughter and assume a new role for himself: the person who nominates people on key positions.

“Nawaz Sharif will assist both Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz,” Marriyum shared with The Express Tribune, adding, “He will help both in their jobs.” To a question if the jailed PTI founding chairman, Imran Khan, just ended Nawaz’s political career by forcing him to change plans seeing the split mandate in the polls, Marriyum refuted by saying that it is Nawaz, who is still nominating people on the premium and most powerful positions in the country.

“Nawaz Sharif is very much playing on the front foot,” Marriyum said in response to a question if he would continue playing his political role from behind the scene. Soon after the PML-N decided that Shehbaz and Maryam would lead the federal and Punjab governments, the social media was abuzz with questions if Nawaz’s political career was finally over. To the question if Nawaz was eying the office of President for himself, Mariyum replied in negative.

The sentiment was primarily based on an open secret that the powerful stakeholders are more comfortable in working with Shehbaz than Nawaz. When asked, a PML-N leader, while requesting not to be named, said that it was merely a perception that the establishment was willing to only work with Shehbaz Sharif.

He, however, admitted that the party was unaware until Tuesday night that Shehbaz would be becoming the prime minister once again. In the PML-N, he said, it was thought that Nawaz Sharif wanted to become PM again to get redemption and leave behind a rich legacy, especially, after being labeled as “chor, daku, corrupt, etc.,” – thieve, robber and corrupt, etc., – by the narratologist, Imran Khan.

He agreed that Nawaz wanted to be remembered as someone who nominated people on key positions; whether the country’s army chiefs or the PM or the CM, among others. However, the notion that the three-time ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s political inning abruptly came to an apparent end was the buzzword on the social media and in the capital.

His decision to opt out of the PM’s race has come just hours after Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the PPP’s candidate for the PM Office, announced that he would no longer be putting himself forward for the candidacy of the prime minister of Pakistan. Strange as it may seem, those running for the PM Office have abandoned their desire just days after the country went for the general elections and busy cobbling up a new government for a five-year term.