Daily Times

Our former prime minister is probably tired of firing salvos at his brethren sitting in the shadow cabinet. Rightly so, because singing the same tune over and over again is downright boring. Marking his grand return to the ever-famous “vote ko izzat do” camp. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is back to bowling volleys against the establishment. In a manner truly befitting ex-supremo Nawaz Sharif’s devoted soldier-at-arms, off went his tirade against the so-called main nemesis. The relentless thunder once again threatens to name-and-shame the power-that-be for dislodging Lahori Lions.

Mr Abbasi is happily enjoying the limelight these days. From attacking the ruling government for “holding no respect for the Kashmiri voter’s choice to smelling a rat in LNG tenders, his frenzied energy is all over the place. As if the usual attacks against the kaptaan were not enough to dictate the changing tides, the fiery PML-N leader even threatened to hit Speaker Asad Qaiser with his shoe in a heated exchange. What a travesty of everything our parliamentary democracy takes great pride in!

However, his recent stream of dirty digs let slip something he might have wished to keep a lid on. In the same interview he had sought an apology with “folded hands” for Shahbaz Sharif’s “bold” truths, he blew the gaff on 2013’s general polls. Publicly admitting to having come to the hot seat through a “stolen election” is either a very well-calculated masterstroke or the end of the beginning. Seeing the ex-prime minister’s no-questions-asked loyalty to the Sharif family, he would most probably have shared this script with Avenfield House. And if the father-daughter duo has green-lighted him toeing the same line, it must have come off some convoluted game plan. For quite some time, the PML-N’s strategy has been to open fire on the militablishment so that it can be forced to join them at the deliberations table. The intensity of the attack might have changed but the edifice remains the same. Having been the key players for decades, it is blisteringly hard for the old cats to take the bench. Going by the impassioned mouthpieces, aggression seems to be their policy through and through. Aggression against political parties who dare pursue an agenda of their own. Aggression against any and all forces who have turned their backs on them. And lastly, aggression against the country’s premier accountability bureau for simply doing their job.

Now, it seems understandable for the Sharif dynasty to not pull any punches against whosoever, whensoever. After all, they were the ones who got a cosy ride to Jeddah even after locking horns with a military dictator in full glory. But what road map are Mr Abbasi and his brigade of yes-man pursuing squirms on the horns of irony. Has he really forgotten the wild goose chase of the 2000s? Being left to the mercy of General Musharraf would not have been a stroll in the park.

Anyways, if his friends wish to let bygones be bygones, good for them! Let’s just hope Abbasi’s next diatribe doesn’t sound as desperate for an olive branch as this one. Try looking a little less exasperated and more confident, Mr Ex-PM. Crossing red lines needs nerves of steel. *