Struggle for influence: Informal powerhouses emerging within PML-N

Three factions – led by Nisar, Asif and Dar – trying to erode each other’s influence .

LAHORE:

Three informal powerhouses have emerged within the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the stalwarts leading these groups have started lobbying within the party to remove each other from important portfolios or deflate their influence, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The three groups are led by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Defence and Energy Minister Khawaja Asif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

Party officials reveal that Nisar is the most influential of the three group leaders or has the ‘strongest’ group as he is the closest to Shahbaz Sharif. On the other hand, Khawaja Asif’s group, which includes Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, is known to be under Prime Minister Nawaz’s wing. Dar’s group, meanwhile, enjoys the favour of both the Sharif brothers and includes State Minister for Telecommunication Anusha Rehman and Premier Nawaz’s daughter Maryam Nawaz.

Although both Nisar and Khawaja Asif have strongly opposed each other’s proposals whenever they were presented before the party leadership, they are both united in their opposition towards Dar, who they think uses – rather, abuses – the extra powers he has been given by the prime minister.

According to sources privy to developments, Asif’s group is trying to portray Nisar as a failure as the interior minister. On the other hand, they said, Nisar wishes to see Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch appointed as the defence minister. Both of them, meanwhile, wish to see Dar’s powers restricted to that of a finance minister only.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, surprisingly, do not make any effort to reconcile these groups as they prefer to ‘divide and rule’, the sources said.

For instance in March, Premier Nawaz opted to go with Asif’s opinion regarding former president Pervez Musharraf’s case and ignored Nisar’s advice.

Following Musharraf’s indictment, Nisar had advised the PML-N leadership to avoid agitating the army and remove the former military ruler’s name from the exit control list (ECL). Asif and Rafique argued against removing Musharraf’s name from the ECL.

According to sources, Prime Minister Nawaz rejected the interior minister’s suggestion saying it was contrary to the view of the majority of the party and asked him to obey the party’s decision.

Later, in May, Nisar was marginalised further when he was not called by the premier during budget meetings, attended and briefed by Finance Minister Dar. Each of Dar’s budgetary proposals received Nawaz’s nod, much to the interior minister’s anguish.

Infuriated at the preference given to Asif and Dar’s opinions, Nisar started lobbying to persuade the PML-N leadership to give weight to his ideas.

On June 23, Shahbaz Sharif put Nisar back in the driver’s seat, tasking him with amicably resolving the tense situation emerging at the airport following Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri’s return to the country. The move sent a signal to the party that the interior minister was its most important player.

Over the last four days, Nisar has stayed at the Punjab chief minister’s annexy at GOR 1. On Tuesday, the interior minister called on Shahbaz in Lahore to discuss several key issues, particularly Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s planned long march on August 14.

Highlighting his growing stature within the party, around a dozen PML-N MNAs called on Nisar at the Punjab House on Wednesday to inquire after his health following his angiography.

When asked about the three factions within the party, PML-N’s Parliamentary Secretary on Information Rana Arshad said difference of opinion exists everywhere. “But the party is unanimous on all issues, overall,” he added.

Talking to The Express Tribune, former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said the same thing. “There is a difference of opinion on different issues in every party,” he said. “But the majority always prevails.”


Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2014.