ISLAMABAD - The leaders in Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz with hawkish tendency are not happy over the unusual silence of the party leadership entrapped in corruption cases.

After background interviews with some senior party leaders and the input from the sources in the party and those close to Sharif family it becomes evident that something was cooking up behind the curtain or at least it was the general perception about going of Nawaz Sharif in mute mode after taking an extreme hostile line following his disqualification in Panama case.

A senior party leader who did not want to be named said that although he was not in favour of taking hostile line against state institutions, Nawaz had built momentum and successfully mobilised people during his campaign which started from the slogan of ‘Mujhay Kyun Nikala’ and peaked up to the mantra of ‘Vote Ko Izzat Do’.

Sources in the party said all those who had pushed Nawaz to stand up for the civilian supremacy are now standing high and dry in the face of stark shift in the demeanour of party Quaid, who since the death of his spouse was keeping mum and not uttering a single word against all what has been happening to him and his other family members.

The complete blackout of Maryam Nawaz from her famous tweeter account was also perturbing the party leaders and activists who believed in the politics of resistance and wanted the party leadership to stand in the face of forces of tyranny.

Maryam Nawaz rose to fame in a short span of time because of his politics of resistance and his hostile line taken against the forces of coercion and his vivid and clear line on civilian supremacy, but her sudden disappearance from her social media account greatly disappointed party youth rallying around her and taking her as the successor of Nawaz and future leader of the party.

In terms of popularity among the PML-N activists she had surpassed almost all the second line leaders in the party and after Nawaz she had emerged as the second crowd-puller leader.

Now the party leaders and activists with hawkish tendency and were charged by the fiery speeches of Nawaz, Maryam and other central leaders since the disqualification of Nawaz in Panama case are now finding it difficult to reconcile with the current situation where the party leadership, particularly Nawaz, Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam are keeping complete mum and completely detached themselves from their previous aggressive stance.

Sources in the party informed that now party chief Shehbaz, who is in NAB custody in connection with investigation into corruption charges against him in Aashyana Housing Scheme and Clean Drinking Water Project, was in full command of the situation and it was decided that instead of confrontation the party would carve out way forward through reconciliation and negotiation.

It was due to the shift in the party policy that the people with hawkish tendency in the party were pushed down and they were not happy over it and dubbed the policy of bowing down to the forces of coercion a big mistake as the party could not get anything good out of it.

Sources in the party informed The Nation that people like Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan, Pervaiz Rasheed, Dr Asif Kirmani and others of the type were annoyed with the party leadership and wanted Nawaz and Maryam to take on the bull by the horns as keeping silence in the current situation will only damage their reputation and would not do any good to the party as well.

The people with hawkish tendency said that by taking such a marked shift in their position, the PML-N leadership would give credence to the impression that Nawaz would be looking for some clandestine deal, which actually is contrary to the ground reality, but would cause irreparable damage to the cause of the party as well as its leadership.