There we go, Shehbaz Sharif has been named as the interim-president of the PML-N. Of course, it will not deprive Nawaz Sharif from having last say on party policies but, call it a dummy or on paper chairman with little to no practical authority, at least to the point of registration Shehbaz has out punched Nawaz. But the bottom-line is; there is no silver lining for an outsider in first rank politics because the tunnel of family politics is far from coming to an end.

Being the biggest democratic party of the country, the PML-N should have taken the democratic route before it announced Shehbaz Sharif its acting-president.

In all practicing democratic countries before a politician is given such a crucial role his worth is weighed through the process of voting. Elections are announced, candidates are nominated and lastly voting is undertaken by party members before they have the right man for right place.

Quite the contrary, the PML-N wasted no breath in doing so when it handpicked Shehbaz to lay down party responsibility on his shoulders. Unfortunately, majority of the mainstream parties operate here as family enterprises where all the rights of ruling the party, and consequently public, are reserved for the coming generations of party chief.

People argue that Shehbaz is the best possible option in sock to run the party. Fully reconciling with all the afore-mentioned landmarks on his credit, I will say it’s not the seasoned politician in him but rather mouth to word fashion he was selected makes his selection undemocratic. Now even if he is richly qualified to hold this position of power, it can’t stop people rising the question “if a party itself is denying the very essence of democracy how fit is can be to uplift democratic ethics in the country?”

VASDEV,

Tharparkar, March 1.