ISLAMABAD - Though the elevation of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif as acting president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has rekindled the hope of estranged Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan taking a vibrant role in the party, yet former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s strong position against him may seal his fate in the party.
Political analysts were pinning great hopes on Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan’s active role in the party in case of Shehbaz Sharif’s elevation as party president but nomination of Nawaz Sharif as “Quaid for Life” of the PML-N have diminished all such expectations.
The newly-elected acting president would require time and a lot of struggle to carve out effective and influential role for him in the party, especially when Maryam Nawaz already carries a very strong clout in the party and would definitely continue to have the blessings and patronage of her father.
Sources in the ruling PML-N informed The Nation that Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who is also member of Central Executive Committee (CEC), the apex body of the party was not invited to the Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting, to elect the acting president of the party, despite efforts by some senior party leaders including National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Federal Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique to convince Nawaz Sharif in this connection.
In the meantime, the former federal minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan through his spokesman said that he would come up with reaction to all those developments in the next couple of days, the move equally provocative, and would only add fuel the already charged situation.
Though all the senior party leaders downplayed the absence of Nisar Ali Khan as a non-issue, saying the former interior minister used to skip such meetings in the past but insiders in the party said that the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had strictly directed not to call him, since he was annoyed over the position Nisar had taken against the party’s narrative of taking hostile position against the superior judiciary.
Sources in the party said that Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Khawaja Saad Rafique failed to convince Nawaz Sharif as he had taken a strong position against Nisar, saying that how he could take along a person who was defying the party discipline and its narrative in public.
These insiders said that the issue, which had hurt Nawaz Sharif the most was Chaudhry Nisar’s refusal to work under Maryam Nawaz as party’s head, when there was no such thing on the cards.
Sources said that the foul remarks of former information minister Senator Pervaiz Rasheed against Ch Nisar Ali Khan were actually the reply from Nawaz Sharif to him on the position the former interior minister had taken against Maryam Nawaz’s expected role in party politics.
Political analysts said that making Nawaz Sharif “Quaid for Life” of the party had automatically weaken the position of the party president, especially when a very strong political personality like Nawaz Sharif would be in the saddle, so Shehbaz Sharif would have little room to deviate from the position taken by the party Quaid.
These sources said that this time Shehbaz Sharif would unlikely prevail on his elder brother in case of Ch Nisar Ali Khan, as the chasm between Nawaz and Nisar would unlikely be bridged.
Following the election of Shehbaz Sharif as acting party head, Central Information Secretary of the party, Mushahid Ullah Khan minced no words in saying that Nawaz Sharif was above party offices and party would continue functioning under his patronage.
“Nawaz Sharif is the engine of the PML-N train and it will take the people of Pakistan to its destiny of establishing true civilian supremacy,” he said.
Sources in the party said that Shehbaz Sharif would likely meet Ch Nisar Ali Khan in the coming days and only time would tell whether he would once again manage to bridge the differences between Nawaz Sharif and Ch Nisar Ali Khan.