Daily Times

In his speech at the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) rally in Quetta on Saturday, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reiterated that the ongoing accountability drive was actually an attempt at settling scores, and that he was targeted unfairly by the apex court. Sharif also stated that the PkMAP and PML-N were ideologically aligned.

His closeness with the PkMAP can be seen as yet another message to the powers-that-be, since PKMAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai frequently speaks out in support of civilian supremacy.

Achakzai also extended support to the former PM and made it clear that his party would resist every move to topple the current government. That the PML-N is strengthening ties with its allies might mean it plans on continuing the severe criticism of the judiciary over Sharif’s disqualification. However, this mantra alone will not be able to increase public support for the party amid allegations of corruption and misdoings to which the Sharif family has hardly provided a satisfactory defence.

It goes without saying that merely playing the victim card will not help the party improve its image ahead of the upcoming general elections.

Nawaz Sharif’s desire to uphold civilian supremacy in the country should be reflected in the government’s decisions. The case of Baloch missing persons, for instance, should be given some importance by the government if the party in fact stands for civilian supremacy. Sharif’s claims about strengthening democracy and making Pakistan progressive mean little when his party’s government is seen appeasing religious extremists. To begin with, he should take notice of his son-in-law and party MNA Captain (retd) Safdar’s open support for extremist groups. All those in the PML-N involved in hate speech and guilty of issuing bigoted statements should be disowned by the party. Nawaz’s failure to do so would mean that this tough talk has nothing much to do with an ideological commitment to the principles he is frequently mentioning these days.

That the former PM promised the people of Balochistan to improve things in the province if re-elected in 2018 says a lot about his party’s performance in the past four years. It would have been better if Nawaz had used the opportunity to apologise to the people of the province for his government’s failure to redress the grievances of the Baloch people.  *

Published in Daily Times, December 4^th 2017.