Since his disqualification, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has made a comeback — at least in the political arena. For his continued attacks on the judiciary are aimed at not only demonstrating that he is down but not out — but making it so. He knows he has been adopting a confrontational approach towards the courts since his disqualification last summer; yet he remains unapologetic. After all, as the former PM likes to point out: when judges continue taking oaths under provisional constitutional orders (PCOs) — the party, the people are under no obligation to respect their jurisdiction. And herein lies the rub. For in Nawaz’s mind there is no distinction between the PMLN and the citizenry. All of which helps in his reinvention as the perennial underdog. Critics argue that he is only fighting for himself. On the day that the King and all his men had to begrudgingly elect an interim party president, which, in a not unexpected move went to Shehbaz, it was Nawaz who once more stole the show. For ‘rob’ him of the premiership, the PMLN presidency, the Senate tickets he had handed out — take all this and he will hit back with party leader for life. And so what if the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahir-ul-Qadri is manoeuvring to have the PMLN de-listed because he finds the “Nawaz” suffix offensive? This just lends weight to the party view that Qadri and Imran are nothing but proxies of a powerful establishment out to eliminate him from the political scene. Sadly, beneath this bravado lies an ugly truth. What we have is a ruling party that is being perpetually prevented from focusing on the business of governance. Meaning, at a time when it should be putting all its energies into coming up with an action plan to ensure that it will not be put on the infamous grey-list in three months’ time — it is burning itself out with relentless palace intrigues. This is to say nothing of the apparent absence of a political manifesto for this summer’s elections. And while we understand that this may just be the way that the cookie crumbles here in Pakistan, the PMLN cannot simply trade on the (overdue) inauguration of the Orange Line Metro Train. For not only is this Punjab-centric, it is unlikely to woo voters away from other parties. The same holds true when it comes to the repeated reminders that the CPEC deal was sealed on Nawaz’s watch; when what the incumbent government should be doing is focusing on projects still pending under the banner of Chinese investment. But as it stands, there are many here in this country that feel the payback on these down payments was not adeptly negotiated. Yet not only that, it does raise important questions about the debt burden that the ruling party has bequeathed to Pakistanis by spending more on large scale infrastructure projects; thereby risking the country’s long-term economic health. With less than six months to go, the electoral process has, thus far, been hijacked by a former PM. Yes, we understand that he won the popular vote. But surely it would have been more appropriate that while fighting his battles before the courts Nawaz had allowed his government to deliver the mandate on which it was elected. Yet as it stands, by the time polls roll around — Pakistan will have endured an entire year of the Nawaz Show; with all the opposition parties never once moving from their cheap seats. And the citizenry will be left standing once more. * Published in Daily Times, February 28th 2018.