Daily Times

There can only be so many reasons for PML-N’s refusal to entertain PPP’s suggestion of tabling a no-confidence motion against Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. One could be that there’s no consensus candidate and to make this move, they would have to bait PML-Q. Given the PML-N hierarchy’s past with the PML-Q hierarchy, too much would have to be forgiven and forgotten to make it worthwhile. Besides, there’s no telling if PML-Q would be receptive to such an idea at the outset, so this is one route PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif would want to avoid, for understandable reasons. You can’t, after all, go through all the trouble that comes with a no-confidence vote and then not have a replacement candidate ready.

Another reason could be the way the Buzdar administration is working. It’s an open secret that except for perhaps the prime minister himself, CM Buzdar has neither sympathisers nor admirers even within the ruling party. And there’s much weight in the argument that Shahbaz Sharif is more than happy to let Usman Buzdar complete his term; just so he can say at the end of it that his administration as CM was far more effective and then take that argument to the next election.

Still, that doesn’t explain why PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah seems pretty excited about sending CM Buzdar packing. It could be that as the party’s head of Punjab, he feels it’s time to give the rank and file a scalp or two, and nothing better than the ruler of the province, so to speak, to start with. Or perhaps, he just disagrees with his party president about a likely replacement. Either way, such differences go to show that the party hasn’t quite thought this matter through properly yet. Otherwise, all senior leaders would have thrown their weight behind the line taken by the president. This is not one of those situations when people from the same party can play good cop and bad cop. So unless PML-N finetunes its narrative, at least about this particular question, it will do its image, and its chances in the next election, a fair degree of harm. *