PML unity

PML-N has approved two different plans. The first is for party chief Mian Nawaz Sharif to tour various provinces. The second is for the party to accept back all former officebearers of the party, except for Ch Shujat Hussain and Ch Pervez Elahi. As the decisions are part of the PML-Ns unification drive, which is in turn focused on finding candidates for the next elections, the moves are inter-linked, for the second is aimed at garnering support from the PML-Q, which is supposed still to have a large number of viable candidates. As many of the PML-Q men had left the PML-N to join it, any merger between the PML-N and the PML-Q would be both the easiest, because they had been together in the past, and the most difficult, because of the bad blood caused by the split, which occurred during the Musharraf era. That might explain why the PML-N would place a ban on the central and Punjab Presidents of the PML-Q, but this specifying of the Chaudhry cousins indicates that the ego problems persist within the PML-N leadership which stymied the move by Zafarullah Jamali, who was acting as a representative of the Pir Pagaro, to bring about party unity. The PML-N and the PML-Q are the most important factions for PML unity, because they have the largest parliamentary delegations, as well as the best collections of candidates for the next elections. There is a downside, in that any faction that holds out of a unity effort will cause the most damage, through the splitting of the Leaguer vote mainly, to the other. This placing of any Leaguer outside the pale reflects the desires of leaders intent on preserving their leadership for the next generation, rather than the actual desires of the rank and file. (It is perhaps no coincidence that the PML-N also considered the tour programme of Mrs Mariam Nawaz, whom Mian Nawaz would like to see assume a more prominent place in the party.) Before taking any decisions, PML leaders have perhaps a greater responsibility than other political leaders, because they are the heirs of the Quaid-e-Azam, who took this party to the creation of Pakistan. Party unity is also needed for the same reason, to make sure that the country sticks to the path of progress charted out by the Founding Fathers. The party has suffered before, with separate factions going down to defeat, and with the next elections round the corner, the party needs to unify. This is important not just for the party or its leaders, but also for the country as a whole, which broke up in 1971 because it was not united.