Lahore: The Sharifs proved on Friday that they are in no mood to lose the all-important throne of Punjab, given its political importance. However, retaining it ‘at all costs’ may come at a heavy political price.

The controversial victory of Hamza Shehbaz, the son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who retained the chief minister’s office against his opponent, the joint PTI and Q-League candidate Parvez Elahi, will only add to the already chaotic political environment and prevailing instability which Pakistan has been desperately looking to get out of.

The move also shows how desperate the ruling coalition is to not slip Punjab from its hands, where they are counting on being in control so as to put their political stratagems into action in the days to come.

The Sharifs on Friday did almost exactly what PTI did in April at the centre. And as was the case when the no-confidence motion against former prime minister Imran Khan was turned down by then-deputy speaker Qasim Khan Suri, the matter of the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker’s ruling may also have to be settled by the apex court.

After being subjected to a humiliating defeat at the hands of the PTI in last Sunday’s by-polls, the PML-N seems to have decided that there is no room for morality in their politics, going forward. The Sharifs apparently took a leaf out of the political playbook on the ’80s and ’90s in a bid to outsmart their relatively-new political rival — Imran Khan.

Mr Khan, who spearheaded the by-election campaign against his rivals on the back of name-calling; using ‘thieves’ and ‘dacoits’ liberally to describe Sharif, Zardari and co, the latest machination by the PML-N and PPP seems to be provided him more with ammunition.

Although there was a section in the party that advised caution, opposing the idea of indulging in this brand of politics, the hawks among their ranks favoured a ‘befitting reply’ to Mr Khan, believing that fighting fire with fire was the only way to deal with the ‘fitna’ (mischief) he hath wrought forth.

Even the PML-N supreme leader’s own daughter, Maryam Nawaz, who had gracefully accepted her party’s defeat last weekend, changed tact on Friday when she tweeted that they were going to give as good as they got.

“PMLN has NOT forgotten the treatment meted out to them. Now the rules of the game will be the same for everyone, else PMLN knows how to play it better,” she said on Twitter.

For observers, this was a hint that the party leadership is determined to draw out the PML-N led coalition government’s tenure until next August, when general elections are supposed to be held.

Talking to Dawn, a PML-N senior leader tried to justify the deputy speaker’s ruling by saying that the coalition could not afford to lose Punjab.

“Losing Punjab means allowing the PTI-PMLQ alliance to send us home from the centre, which we forestalled. We carried the baggage left behind by the Imran Khan government, took harsh economic decisions and paid the price in the by-polls. We cannot tolerate being made to pay the price for the previous government’s poor economic decisions while Mr Khan comes out unscathed,” he said.

The ruling coalition also wants the establishment to fully back it up to fix the economy and, for this purpose, it needs a ‘green signal’ to lay hands on Imran Khan.

Federal ministers such as Rana Sanaullah, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Saad Rafique and Javed Latif had already started voicing this demand openly after the losing by-polls. They have also been urging the ECP to announce its verdict in the long-drawn prohibited funding case against Imran Khan and his party. “Putting Imran Khan behind bars will help us fix the economy in a congenial environment,” the leader said.

The Zardari factor

The PPP leader has once again proved what his son Bilawal said about him; ‘Aik Zardari Sab Pe Bhaari’ (one Zardari outweighs them all).

The maxim seems to hold true; his role in ensuring the success of the no-confidence motion against Mr Khan in April cannot be denied. This time around, however, he managed to pull off a trick even his allies could not have imagined — making PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain go against his own cousin.

It also appears that the Sharifs are heavily depending on Mr Zardari to make the impossible, possible. Although, there is a feeling within the PML-N ranks that the Sharifs are damaging their politics by blindly following Zardari, but in the face of Mr Khan’s onslaught, it seems the Sharifs have no other choice.

Trouble in Chaudhry’s paradise

Shujaat turning against Elahi at a very crucial point was, in fact, seen by many as the ‘official announcement’ of a breakup among the Chaudhry brothers of Gujrat.

It is believed that Shujaat’s sons — Salik and Shafay — made their father take the decision to go against Elahi in the CM poll. Shujaat’s brother Wajahat Hussain recently alleged that his (Shujaat)’s sons had accepted dollars from Mr Zardari to join the PML-N led coalition. For his part, Shujaat had been insisting that his brother take back the allegation and apologise, which he did not.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2022