- A desperate move for political survival
Nawaz Sharif has decided to return to the country and continue his fight till the people of Pakistan are freed of what he calls “the slavery imposed on them by some generals and judges”. This will come as a shock to those who had written him off as a cowardly absconder begging for asylum in Britain or beseeching the establishment for some sort of compromise.
Apprehensions were already being expressed about the fairness of the elections. Nawaz Sharif’s announcement to return to Pakistan to lead the PML-N’s campaign had created expectations that this could change the situation in the party’s favour. With Sharif and Maryam sentenced to long terms in jail, a wave of despondency was likely to overtake the party’s voters leading some to abstain from voting. Will the defiant announcement to come back to fight put a new life in the PML-N which has most the time been the party of the establishment?
This is the second time after 1999 when the PML-N leadership faces the wrath of the establishment. Last time Sharif had reached an agreement brokered with Saudi help with the military ruler, who had ousted him, to live in exile for a specified period. He faces a more complicated challenge this time. He has been sentenced by a court of law while his party is free to take part in the elections albeit in a peculiar dispensation where the establishment is widely seen to be playing with a loaded dice. Nawaz Sharif has no option but to return to the country whatever it takes and fight both a legal and a political battle to survive as a political leader. To start with he must go for an appeal.
Parties lose elections and remain out of power sometime for a decade or more as the example of PPP shows. With Nawaz having been put in political quarantine for a long time, the PML-N faces an existential challenge. It remains to be seen if Nawaz Sharif’s baptism of fire can turn the party of status quo into a determined and united party of change. Or will the announcement turn out to be no more than a damp squib?
