Daily Times

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has a self-image of himself bordering on being one of the ‘chosen’. Ideologically he places himself on the right of centre. He views himself first and foremost as a Muslim with absolute faith in Allah and the finality of His Messenger (PBUH) subsequent to which he sees himself as a devote Pakistani and then a PMLN loyalist in that order.

In his May 5, 2018 press conference, without stating it in so many words, Nisar had implied that he viewed the PMLN as well in his own self-image — a party subscribing to the right-of-centre ideology heavily tinged with religiosity.

That was perhaps what had prompted Nisar to wonder how could then the PMLN supreme leader, Nawaz Sharif claim that he had never subscribed to any ideology in the past and that he has only lately become ‘Nazriyati’ (ideological). Nisar followed up by asking Nawaz to spell out the ideology that he now claims to subscribe while wondering if it was the same one which the left-leaning Mahmood Khan Achekzai of PkMAP subscribes to.

During the press conference Nisar kept reiterating that he was opposed to his supreme leader’s post-Panama policies and politics and that he had advised the leadership against taking the route Nawaz had taken at every decisive juncture but to no avail. He said he totally disagreed with Nawaz Sharif’s post-Panama narrative which in his opinion was akin to washing the nation’s dirty linen in public which in turn, according to him, has made Pakistan a laughing stock in the world and which, he thought further increased the existential (?) risks facing the country.

Embedded in the message that he had wanted to communicate through the press conference was that no left-of-centre political party could be loyal to Pakistan’s ‘ideology’ or to his version of Islam and that he was the only one among the PMLN leadership along with just about 40/45 MNAs who have the ‘national interest’ of the country nearest to their heart and that the establishment could depend on him to deliver on democracy and that he was the only one who could help establish a working balance in civil-military relationship.

Speculations are rife that the forthcoming elections will create a hung parliament, with the PML-N emerging as the single largest party and the PTI as a close second, followed by the PPP

By consigning around 70 percent of the PMLN MNAs to the revolving door passenger group (habitual turncoats) he seems to have attempted to imply that only the residual 30 per cent subscribed to the ideology that he believed in and that he could be depended upon to provide a platform at the right time to re-launch the PMLN under his leadership once the courts had taken care of the Nawaz and his family.

He has also claimed that out of 20-25 original founders of the PMLN only he has survived in the Party to date and that Rana Tanveer Hussain who had remained loyal to the Party since its founding but was not one of the founders was the only one along with him from the original group of loyalists in the current parliament. He seemed to have quoted these facts perhaps to highlight his unrivaled loyalty to the PMLN and its ideology.

Nisar’s recall of his offer to help out with the COAS and ISI Chief if a top level meeting were convened to request them not to permit the ISI and MI representatives to sit in the JIT constituted by the Supreme Court as well as his other recalls like how close he was to the late Asif Nawaz and Musharraf and how he had responded to specific attempts by these generals including by Aslam Beg to interfere in the civilian domain seemed to have meant to convey to the right quarters that he was the one (the ultimate redeemer?) the nation has been waiting for all these years.

Also these recalls had sounded more like reassurances held out to all those Party members sitting on the fence not to lose heart and wait until after the elections to decide whether or not to leave the Party.

He made it very clear during the press conference that he was not leaving the Party despite all the differences that he had with the PMLN’s supreme leader and despite also his staunch opposition to the tone and tenor of Nawaz Sharif’s narrative.

This leads one to two different conclusions: Either he is confident that the PMLN would emerge at least as the largest single Party in a hung house after the elections therefore does not want to leave the Party at this point in time or perhaps knowing that he would not win the NA seat he is contesting without the PMLN vote bank which in his opinion has remained intact despite the tribulations the Party has been undergoing since July 2017,therefore he does not feel it right politics to abandon the Party at this juncture.

Speculations are rife that the forthcoming elections would throw up a hung parliament with the PMLN emerging as the single largest party with PTI coming up a close second followed by the PPP. Asif Ali Zardari, the PPP co-chairperson has already offered to join hands with the PTI to form a coalition government at the centre which the latter has declined.

But then if the electoral engineering that the invisible elements (Nawaz’s ETs?) seem to be indulging in succeed, as they do always, one cannot rule out the possibility of — wonder of wonders — a coalition government of PTI and the PMLN as by that time perhaps the courts would have ‘hopefully’ consigned the Sharif family to history and; Nisar ‘hopefully’ would have taken over the effective command of the Party helped ‘hopefully’ by those 40/45 PMLN electables whom he had advised patience.

In such a coalition PMLN (isar) is likely to be the senior partner but the PM’s slot most probably would go to Imran Khan. Why not Nisar? Because he is more of a private man than a public one and is known to feel more comfortable in a position where he could pull the main strings from behind!

The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad. He served as the Executive Editor of Express Tribune until 2014

Published in Daily Times, May 10^th 2018.