Nawaz’s job to ‘rein in’ leaders bent on dividing PML-N

PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif should have taken notice of the statements being given by party leaders Rana Sanaullah and Javed Latif, whose public positions were damaging for its federal government, an official close to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told The Express Tribune on Sunday.

The official added that these two leaders recently tried to fan the flames of an internal strife within the PML-N by making a case for Nawaz's return to party presidency.

PM Shehbaz is fully aware of this position in the party and recognises the authority of his elder brother Nawaz in every respect. Nawaz’s personality is such that he does not need to resort to such a petty move to take back the party presidency.

The official continued that Nawaz could at any moment instruct his younger brother Shehbaz, the incumbent president, to make the necessary arrangement to hand him back the position and it would be done.

Therefore, he continued that there was no need for such poorly planned optics.

He said there were no differences between the two brothers although such moves did cast shadows of doubt and gave fodder for criticism to the party’s rivals.

Read also: Sanaullah requests Nawaz to take helm of PML-N amidst internal strife

The official said that the news conference by Sanaullah was not well received in Islamabad, but PM Shehbaz was firm on his stand of resolving the party’s affairs internally.

He said during a meeting, when another PML-N man tried to talk against these leaders, particularly about Sanaullah, the premier snubbed him.

PM Shehbaz told the PML-N leader that despite their public positions, they were senior men and had tremendously served the party.

The official said PM Shehbaz had never even allowed his team to respond to these matters.

He said that they knew it for a fact that there was no camping behind this but if it was allowed to happen unchecked, an impression that a certain campaign was taking place against PM Shehbaz would gain traction – at least in the media.

Read: PML-N leaders engage in public spat

About Ishaq Dar being appointed the deputy prime minister, the official said without mincing words that the move was meant to satisfy his ego.

If it makes Dar happy, then let it be, he added.

He said the deputy premier was not an official position so apart from a titular impact, this served no other purpose.

When asked about the reason behind the move, he cryptically replied that usually when someone was unsatisfied with a certain position and went around complaining about it, it necessitated handing down a pacifier to such an individual. This post is nothing more than a pacifier, he claimed.

Federal Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal as well as Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar were contacted for comments, but to no avail.