ONE, two, three.… You have a whole four days of Eid holidays to think about these random questions, which are without any order. But they do all, in one way or the other, concern the PML-N — a party that has as yet not released us of its influence.

What is so special about these questions at this time, especially when we have this habit of asking them the entire year round?

An answer to this question is possible given a backdrop where a list of queries is doing the rounds in the run-up to the election. Old doubts are re-emerging. Old taunts have returned. New light is being shed on the misdoings of the past. It is time for rapid-response interviews, beginning with the election officials wanting to gauge the ability of the candidates, with the epidemic taking genuine leaders such as Shahbaz Sharif into its grip.

Shahbaz sahib has put up a set of 26 questions that he wants the KP government, more precisely Imran Khan, to answer. That’s the avenue Shahbaz’s speed and energy seems to have taken after the end of the latest Shahbaz term. Here we dare ask far fewer of them, hoping to get some answers that are durable if not true.

What options does a veteran politician, embarrassingly frustrated by the party bosses over an election ticket, have?

Question: What options does a veteran politician, embarrassingly frustrated by the party bosses over an election ticket, have? What lessons does the Chaudhry Nisar Ali episode offer to his kind of politician — those who have, for long, claimed not just loyalty but also for many decades nursed the illusion that they formed the vanguard of their party?

There are many optional answers here for you to choose from.

Option one: The angry PML-N veteran should have listened to the advice of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a politician in the vicinity of — and a long history of faithfulness to — the party owners. Abbasi had, a few weeks ago, remarked that (politicians such as) Nisar and Abbasi himself had nowhere to go now. Whereas it can be argued that Abbasi had been rewarded for his consistency and his loyalty, his message for Nisar was that he should accept whatever was being dished out to him from the Sharif kitchen. In short, the proud senior politician was being asked to place himself at the mercy of the party leadership. Is this what you would ask Nisar, or those in similar situations, to do?

Some accompanying questions would be: do you think Nisar should never have resorted to the personal attacks on members of the Sharif family that led to his formal sidelining? Do you think that he can take some satisfaction from the fact that his case has exposed as false all those versions that cast him as a close friend of Shahbaz sahib?

Option two: There was, in the not-too-distant, past plenty of talk about Nisar’s ability to carve a patriot-like group out of the PML-N and launch himself as the alternative. Wouldn’t his example encourage others like him in the future to not just be content with asking the leadership to behave, but to go the whole hog and declare their independence while they can?

Question: Are the Sharif brothers done with Nisar? If so, is there any likelihood of the big prediction of the fallout between Nawaz and Shahbaz ever coming true? What could cause this split? Who will initiate it? You think that the breach is under way? Prove it with five examples.

Question: What inspires poll officials to put all these embarrassing hurdles in the way of those wanting to contest elections? Why wasn’t the issue discussed and addressed by the last assembly even when there was so much evidence that these election officials, inspired by God knows whom and which tradition, just love to embarrass the aspirants at the very basic level — when they are filing their nominations in the constituencies?

Question: Why does the landscape change so quickly for the PML-N — and by default for its rivals — once the party crosses Sahiwal? Why can’t Multan, at least sometimes, be as kind and reassuring to the Sharifs as Lahore generally has been? Why can’t D.G. Khan provide some quick, reliable electable to the PML-N? Hint, a possible answer to this set of questions may be available in the old theory about uneven growth and decorated accounts about Takht-i-Lahore. You are encouraged to explore some less obvious explanations here. Try and see conspiracy.

Question: How does a caretaker chief minister follow up on his promise (to an uncomfortable PML-N) that he will prove his credentials as a neutral administrator with his deeds? Just how free is the caretaker chief minister in selecting his team, which may include capable persons — sometimes veterans of past caretaker setups — he has been close to all his life? Will someone please explain what the procedure of selecting ministers and advisers in a caretaker government actually is, and why some people are keener than others to jump on this two-month-long bandwagon?

Question: The final question in this random list. What would the caretaker setups in Punjab do without us lending them journalists in their moment of need? They have absolutely no one reliable in these most celebrated walks of life that we constantly write about. Without the most efficient and wise Najam Sethis and the most respected Prof Hasan Askari Rizvi, these thankless politicians might have still been out there, quarrelling amongst themselves over the right kind of caretakers. The least these politicians can do is to resolve that they will pass legislation that will give journalists the first right on all caretaker appointments in Punjab in the future. There should definitely be legislation to ensure that there are no post-poll allegations against journalists serving on caretaker setups. That will be a small token of appreciation for us taking a job no one else wanted — or was deemed fit — to do.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2018