Perhaps NAB could have picked a better time to go after the PML-Q Chaudharys on 20-year old charges of misuse of authority, assets beyond means, and all that considering not just the state of emergency caused by the coronavirus but also the precarious nature of the ruling alliance in Punjab. Surely the Chaudharys were expected to lash back with a fair degree of venom, which they did as they knocked on the doors of the Lahore High Court. Now it’s pretty unfair to blame the press for carrying all the conspiracy theories that are doing the rounds, implying that something is cooking in the province of Punjab that could well plunge the ruling alliance into disarray.
Word is that the dominos started falling around mid-April when PML-N leader Khwaja Saad Rafiq and his brother called on Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi, speaker of the Punjab assembly, in Lahore. And while the cameras only recorded them appreciating the speaker’s efforts in collecting all parties on a unified platform to combat the threat from the coronavirus, reporters were filing stories quoting ‘sources’ close to both parties that the get together was the result of some sort of a thaw between the two Muslim League factions. Also, everybody knows that once these stories get going they assume lives of their own, so soon enough there were also ‘sources’ fearing that forces of change might have been set in motion in Punjab.
But then the Bureau decided to move its piece on the chessboard just when these rumours were dying a natural death and everybody’s attention was once again turning towards the pandemic. Now, rumours aside, the only quantifiables we are left with are that the Charudhrys are being investigated and they are not too happy about it. And this is happening when the ruling party still needs the alliance and PML-N is positioning its own knights on the board. Now, until the government or the investigating authority, or even PML-Q for that matter, provides some clarity on the matter, how should people treat rumours that PTI might have cultivated a sizeable forward bloc within PML-N to hedge against the compulsion of relying on PML-Q? Whether or not the Chaudhrys are being grilled for hobnobbing with the opposition, it is clear that communication among Punjab’s top allies is not as smooth as it used to be. Surely it’s in the interest of the ruling party to address this particular issue before it gets out of control. At stake is not just the chief minister’s office but also, considering the circumstances, a lot of lives if the government falters and is unable to give its complete attention to relief efforts. In short, it is the government’s responsibility to make sure that whatever is cooking in Punjab does not give too many people, especially its allies, a bad case of political indigestion. *