Daily Times

If you have been in front of the ever-anxious tube lately, it has been busy spinning all kinds of wild stories about the incumbents. The power of the nightly tube circus, cannot be underestimated. No matter where you turn the dial, there is a new crisis of sorts. You would perhaps sit at the edge of your chair, thinking the world will be coming to an abrupt ending, very soon.

There is a phrase that has long been used to describe the country’s situation: “Pakistan is going through the most sensitive juncture of its existence.” Sadly it is relevant even today. The imminent crisis that is supposedly causing such uproar and noise is; who will now lead PML-N? Whether it will be Nawaz or his obedient and perhaps rebellious (according to who you favourite TV guru is) younger brother?

Which faction within the party will prevail, the ideological one or the pragmatic and practical one? How soon will this party disintegrate once Nawaz is sentenced? Who will be the heir of the party, the daughter or her uncle? Quite a long winded and multi layered dilemma you would say. The truth to the matter may not be as complicated as it is being made for the public consumption. Our media is creating an unnecessary storm in a fine China cup. A chaos of some sorts is perhaps on the wish list of some.

Relax and sit back and think for a minute. If the ring maters of the nightly circus tell you that, things will be under control. Would you be able to tolerate the barrage of ads, anywhere from toothpaste to some posh villa being built exactly to the foot print of your dream home in Dubai or Singapore?

Leaving the heavy-duty analysis for the real heavy weights that you often read, lets parse this whole conundrum for dummies like yours truly. If you recall, we were told once Nawaz leaves the office, things will swiftly change for the better. So, he did. The folks who were banking on his departure, were not happy at all, when his party regained his NA-120 seat. The daughter made that victory speech on the eve of that win, which ticked off many.

The next few days and weeks were spent on creating and nurturing the impression that young daughter is the one on the driving seat and along with some sycophants, leading her father to another disaster. The younger brother along with his budding son (Poultry tycoon by day and politician at night) want to salvage the party from the ultimate abyss.

Maryam Nawaz is not going anywhere. She is the future heir and no matter how hard you try your algebraic formulas, she is not willing to be subtracted at any cost

Wait in between this soap opera, there was a drum roll with appropriate back ground music, indicating breath taking suspense and hyper ventilating lads and damsels reminding us of the apocalypse. You guessed it right, the infamous clash with the ‘institutions’. The word ‘institutions’ was parroted to the extent that one really had to be thankful to them even for the oxygen in the air.

Just pause for a moment and think, how could a party head, who wants his party to win the upcoming elections, do something silly and still make it through.

The pragmatic and politically correct, younger brother was then propped and shall we say, overly propped as the man with his head resting on the shoulders. The man who is acceptable to the ‘institutions’ and he will be the person avoiding any splits, and so on and so forth. The operative term here is ‘acceptable to the institutions’. A party man suggesting that younger brother should ‘take over’ was played and replayed. A few nights were spent on the ‘what ifs’ and painting the eventual splits and illustrating the defections, forward blocs.

Even the younger brother knows that he may be that great hands on Chief Minister, but the vote bank belongs to his ousted brother. Come 2018, he needs the ‘lion’ to roar so his voters will flock to the polling booths. The last thing on his mind, would be to pull a Farooq Sattar.

As much as the opponents would like, the daughter is not withering away either. She is the future heir and no matter how hard you try your algebraic formulas, she is not willing to be subtracted at any cost.

If Panama was supposed to dismantle Brand Nawaz, then to the dismay of powers-that-be, it has added more value to it. Let’s forget the facts of the case for a moment. Let’s only focus on one reality, politics is a game of perception. The politicians (whether you and I dislike them to the nth degree) build their base for decades, with their voters. You cannot expect the voters to dislike someone, because you and I want them to. A disqualified, tried, sentenced, perhaps incarcerated Nawaz, will still emerge as a winner. The ‘brand’ is here to stay. Whether you and I agree to disagree on this one.

The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets @dasghar

Published in Daily Times, November 10^th 2017.