Another Nawaz acolyte joins government

Firebrand Sanaullah made PM’s aide on political affairs

ISLAMABAD:

Former interior minister Rana Sanaullah Khan on Tuesday formally joined Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s team as his adviser on political and public affairs, signaling a shift in the party dynamics as well as solidifying PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif faction’s grip on the coalition led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The decision to make Sanaullah as political adviser has come just days after PM Shehbaz appointed Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar as deputy prime minister, who is another close and trusted aide of the Sharif family – especially of elder Sharif, who has quietly been making his presence felt after key leaders of his camp lost in the general elections.

Also, the induction has come on the heels of a meeting of PML-N leaders urging the comeback of Nawaz Sharif as party president. Surprisingly, the meeting was spearheaded by Sanaullah as the party’s Punjab president, kicking off a campaign to dethrone party president Shehbaz Sharif by passing a resolution.

The appointments of Sanaullah and Dar are significant steps amid rumours that the PPPP could also join the federal cabinet after the budget. It has also been speculated that Dar might get replaced by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari if the PPPP joins the federal cabinet.

With the latest induction, Sanaullah has formally entered in the federal cabinet as well as become a part of the PML-N-led coalition government. President Asif Ali Zardari approved his appointment as an adviser, having the status of a federal minister on Tuesday.

The president approved Sanaullah’s appointment on the advice of the premier under Article 93 (a) of the Constitution.

Sanaullah, who served as the PML-N’s former interior minister during the period of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government and earned the reputation of a ruthless minister nicknamed as “Hakeem Sahib”, has now been added as the PM’s aide as he couldn’t make a comeback by winning his seat in the general elections held on February 8.

Though he lost in the elections, Sanaullah was recently making headlines by giving different statements that chided his own party’s decisions, especially, the appointment of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.

On one occasion, Sanallah said that giving portfolios to Naqvi and Aurangzeb was a guarantee of the future of incumbent government, quipping that the appointment of both was for the better health of the government.

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

On another occasion, Sanaullah had said that Naqvi could also become the president of Pakistan only if the latter desires. He even went on to say that if a person can serve in so many positions then why he cannot be the prime minister, reiterating that he could take any position he wanted but he ultimately decided to choose the interior ministry.

In response, Naqvi for the first time gave a strong message to his detractors both inside and outside the ruling PML-N, saying that those trying to create a wedge between him and PM Shehbaz were doomed to fail.

Naqvi said that his association with the prime minister spanned over 25 years, stressing that Shehbaz was not just like an elder brother to him but also a friend. On a personal note, the minister said that he preferred personal relations over government portfolios. Now, both Sanaullah and Naqvi will be sitting together in the federal cabinet and several other forums.

Apart from Sanaullah, a few other PML-N leaders, including Saad Rafique, and Javed Latif, had also lost elections and are often found busy issuing statements that continue to stir political chessboard. Nawaz and other party leaders of his camp had envisioned a different equation before the polls but results compelled them to change their plans.

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 the 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 as the prime minister and his daughter as the Punjab chief minister and assume a new role for himself: the person who nominates people, including army chiefs, on key positions and continues playing his political role from behind the scene.

In private discussions, his party leaders say that another reason why Nawaz Sharif opted out of the premiership race was that the powerful stakeholders are more comfortable in working with Shehbaz than Nawaz. They say Nawaz wanted to have a clear mandate and seeing the poll results, he has abandoned his plans for the time being.

Nevertheless, they admitted that if Nawaz wanted to become the prime minister again he could have but he is eying another goal: 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.