MIAN Nawaz Sharif has made a somewhat surprising call to the Bhurban meeting of PML(N) office bearers. Attended by the party's Central Executive Committee, its district presidents and general secretaries, and its parliamentary parties, when they constituted an Organising Committee with him as its chairman, to prepare the party for elections mandated next year. Mian Nawz wants to change his party into a revolutionary one, though its focus so far has been on elections. This is an indication that he does not see elections as being around the corner, but is also an indication that Mian Nawaz actually believes his revolutionary rhetoric, which sees street power as being what makes for change on the issues faced by the nation, just as it was street power that made for the restoration of the judiciary to its pre-Emergency position. Mian Nawaz also referred back to the Partition, but not the founding of the party, when he referred to the Quaid-i-Azam, closely associated with the former, but not the latter, in saying that a failure to adhere to his principles had resulted in the failures of democratic regimes, and the imposition of dictatorial regimes for 33 years of the country's existence. He also referred to the Partition, while describing the crisis that faced the country, which he claimed was worse, with the nation drifting in a direction where the masses do not wish to go. However, he also ruled out any attempt to sabotage the present democratic dispensation. Thus Mian Nawaz appears to be drawing a line between the party in power and the wider constitutional dispensation that the country is governed by. While condemning the party holding office, he appears as an upholder of the constitutional dispensation which put it there. He was also very explicit in saying that his party was not helping any party cling to power, but was trying to strengthen the democratic order. It is in this context that his repetition of the plea to implement the Charter of Democracy must be seen. He has also called for the implementation of a justice-based system of accountability and punishment, which he claimed was essential if the nation was to progress. He also told the meeting that the party would be cleared of 'opportunists', giving as example the party resistance to floorcrossing of any kind when the Shahbaz government was under threat. He was also emphatic that the PML(N) was not aiming for power, and would not compromise on its principled stand to gain power. That would be another indication that Mian Nawaz does not expect an election any time soon, except for the party elections.