With Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz Sharif calling the shots, PML-N hawks are flapping their wings again and are not afraid to ruffle a few feathers in an election year.

Maybe the party thinks that in its war with PTI Chairman Imran — its main nemesis who has been increasingly critical of the state institutions and his political opponents — it needs to fight fire with fire.

Ms Sharif, who was appointed the party’s senior vice president last month with a task to reorganise the party, returned to Pakistan a few days ago after a nearly four-month sojourn in London.

In the absence of her father, party supremo Nawaz Sharif, from the country, she faces two major challenges: counter Imran Khan’s popularity and his pressure tactics on the institutions, and mobilise PML-N workers in the face of impending elections.

Besides, Ms Sharif will also be working to placate the concerns of senior PML-N leaders who have expressed reservations about her new role, which gives her complete control over party affairs.

The likes of former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi have voiced their concerns openly, while others wait and see how Ms Sharif works to bail the party out of a tight spot.

In 2019, former interior minister and veteran politician Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, once the most trusted lieutenant of Nawaz Sharif, ended his 35-year association with the party. Mr Khan had criticised the “dynastic politics” in the party and refused to work under Ms Sharif.

After her recent elevation, the PML-N has made it clear that Mar­yam Nawaz Sharif has been given a free hand in running the party.

With the start of this month, she set off on a tour of Punjab to reorganise the party and bring in her own team, preferably the hawks.

“Maryam was interested in extending her stay in London, but her father sent her back with two tasks — counter Imran Khan’s rising popularity and his pressure tactics on institutions, the army and the judiciary, and inject new life in the beleaguered PML-N,” a close aide to the Sharifs told Dawn on Sunday.

Ms Sharif’s detractors in the party have two major concerns — one, she does not take senior leaders on board in making important decisions; and two, she mostly prefers a hawkish stance, irrespective of whether it goes in the larger interest of the party.

The Sharifs’ aide was of the view that the party might not have faced that much oppression at the hands of the powerful circles during its 2013-18 tenure if it had opted for “sensible” politics.

“Nawaz Sharif started pursuing a treason case against former army chief Pervez Musharraf soon after assuming power in 2013, primarily on the advice of a hawkish group in the party led by Maryam, which eventually led to a confrontation with the military establishment and elder Sharif’s ouster,” the aide said.

(Mr Musharraf passed away in Dubai on Sunday at the age of 79.)

Today, questions were once again being raised whether the party’s new narrative against yet another former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, former spymaster Faiz Hameed, and two former top judges — Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa — would benefit the party in the long run, the aide said.

“This narrative is the brainchild of Maryam and company, as we have noticed that none from the Shehbaz [Sharif] camp is following it,” he said. “This stance may expose the party to yet another conflict with the establishment and the judiciary at the end of the day.”

Similarly, he said the party’s doves had been against the federal coalition’s action against the PTI and its allies, but the hawks prevailed in the end.

A case in point is PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, who has opposed the government’s efforts to postpone polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and has advised the government to avoid confrontation with the PTI and invite it for talks.

A party leader from Lahore said Ms Sharif “is likely to impose a group of her favourites on them in Punjab”, a move he feared would prove detrimental to the party’s cause in the days to come.

After assuming the new role, Ms Sharif handpicked Saiful Malook Khokhar for the position of the party’s Lahore president. There is hardly any PML-N leader in the city who has endorsed the decision.

“Almost the entire Lahore leadership, including seniors like Khawaja Saad Rafique and Rana Mashhood, are open critics of this decision,” the party leader said, adding that senior leaders believed Mr Khokhar was not suited to run the party in one of the most important stations like Lahore.

Is Hamza cornered?

Ms Sharif’s elevation in the party has also sent a clear message from Nawaz Sharif to the Shehbaz camp that she, and not the incumbent premier, would succeed him.

“The influence of Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Hamza Shahbaz, in party matters will diminish in the days to come,” a PML-N insider said, adding that Ms Sharif would be the “ultimate boss”.

Hamza Shehbaz has been out of the political scene since he lost the Punjab chief minister office to PTI ally Parvez Elahi in July last year.

He has been abroad for the last couple of months and has reportedly extended his stay, apparently to allow Ms Sharif, his cousin, to reorganise the party according to her wishes.

The insider said Ms Sharif might also contest the elections if they are held in Punjab so that she could take over as the chief minister if her party wins.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2023