SIGNS are that the powers within the house of Sharif are finding it a wee bit tough to reconcile with each other’s authority. The latest proof of a lack of, or a need for, adjustment came in the shape of a statement by Ms Maryam Nawaz that was found by the rightly inclined to be agitating against the considered view of her uncle, Mian Shahbaz Sharif.

Ms Nawaz had dubbed any possible ‘meesaq-i-maeeshat’, or charter of economy, ‘mazaq-i-maeeshat’ or a joke with the economy. This provided the channels with an opportunity, and they had a field day identifying the breach inside the Sharif fortress — not for the first, nor likely the last, time. The expected twist to this little rift that cast a long shadow over the Sharif dynasty’s internal discipline was given by Ms Nawaz who, as predicted, furnished a fresh statement of her belief in the leadership of Mr Shahbaz Sharif.

The PML-N would have behaved as if Ms Maryam Nawaz’s oath of allegiance to her leader has resolved the small matter. But its desire to stay poker-faced in the wake of the fresh realities aside, there are new centres of powers to be spotted inside the PML-N camp for anyone who cares to see.

Quite often, mistakenly, the Shahbaz-Maryam situation is compared to the old and successful formula where Mr Shahbaz Sharif and Mian Nawaz Sharif were supposed to be individually, and separately, providing leadership to the PML-N.

The sequence where a remark is passed by one of the authorities within the PML-N and then withdrawn on one pretext or the other has been played just too many times. The strain, or the causes that could lead to one, is increasingly showing.

To begin with, it is unnatural for anyone to believe that two leaderships diametrically opposed to each other over not just strategy but, ‘visibly’, ideology as well can coexist in a party. Quite often, mistakenly, the Shahbaz-Maryam situation is compared to the old and successful formula where Mr Shahbaz Sharif and Mian Nawaz Sharif were supposed to be individually, and separately, providing leadership to the PML-N in the past.

The attempt to draw a parallel between that long-serving arrangement and the current understanding has been flawed from the beginning, since over all these years of spectacular PML-N victories and occasional setbacks, it was never in any doubt as to who the supreme leader was.

Mian Nawaz Sharif is still that supreme adhesive but his capacity to provide a bonding at every required moment has been grossly compromised by his incarceration.

Everyday decisions pertaining to running party politics have to be taken by the relatively more free souls existing outside the walls of Kot Lakhpat jail. The process to reach these decisions is most definitely going to shackle the minds of those who make them, given the different directions that Mr Shahbaz Sharif and Ms Maryam Nawaz took as evident in this latest two-pronged, in fact two-faced, PML-N front.

Over the decades, analysts, comprising both, the one with ill intent and the well-wishers, have struggled to break down the ingredients of what went into the solid and lasting partnership between the Sharif brothers. One easy explanation we all relied upon for years was that it was the presence of Mian Sharif, the Sharif dynasty founder, which had kept his sons united.

When the patriarch passed away during the Sharif exile after the 1999 coup, some readily described it as the moment that was to release Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif from each other’s bondage. It was thought that soon they would embark on their independent journeys determined by the difference in their respective personalities. It’s been some years since the alliance has survived the worst wishes that have been directed its way.

Looking for ever simpler explanations, the major, if not the clinching, reason for the continued partnership between these two politicians with distinct styles was said to be Mr Shahbaz Sharif’s belief in the unshakeable patriarchal system. It was said that he was able to easily replace his father with his elder brother as the leader, propped up on the basis of the respect that those with more recent origins must have for their elders.

In the most celebrated local tradition of jauris or duos or pairs, allegiance by the younger to the older statesmen is considered absolutely essential, and as recent trends go, the Nawaz-Shahbaz jauri is the most steadfast and the hardest to crack. Many other pairings seemingly unbreakable at one time, have fallen by the wayside; usually such allies were seduced or devoured by interests around them.

Like items in a scheme, this allegiance business is complemented by other matters of convention. In times, when resistance is inevitable against the old forces holding the puzzle together many old things that are not being ostensibly targeted do come under immense pressure to survive.

And a match between the ostensible and really desirable takes an altogether new meaning when the spotlight is put back on the PML-N in its present state.

Ms Maryam Nawaz is out to challenge — even if some old observers insist that what she has put up is a facade, and a longing for a deal with the establishment is not any less pronounced in her camp in comparison with other power-chasers in the country.

Her stance is going to repeatedly bring her in confrontation — before anyone else — with the much more softly moving Mr Shahbaz Sharif. And this despite the fact that for all practical purposes the Shahbazian command of the PML-N was replaced with a Maryam takeover of the party some time ago.

A Shahbaz Sharif having wielded so much authority in his typically flamboyant style ... it is a picture that is most difficult to imagine. There will have to be rationalisation here. One plank will have to retreat.

The other option is the takeover of the PML-N by one of the two factions after a clash that will be difficult to paper over with high-sounding, conventional lines.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2019