LAHORE: Majority of the PML-N senior leadership, while denying any knowledge of Shahbaz Sharif’s secret meetings with some powerful quarters, believe that there is no room for any narrative other than the one stated by party supremo Nawaz Sharif, which rules out any compromises.
The news media, and especially the social media, was abuzz with the secret meeting in Islamabad.
The PML-N president had been criticised before the elections as well for his rather subdued approach regarding the stance taken by the party supremo. He, however, stepped it up a notch in the last days of the campaign.
Sources inside PML-N had multiples times shared that Shahbaz had, at multiple instances, shared with senior party leaders that the harsh criticism of certain national institutions had not played out well for the party in the general elections.
When contacted, PML-N Chairman Raja Zafar-ul-Haq said he had no information about any meeting. When inquired about the possibility of it and the probable reaction of senior party leadership, he said the party’s official stance was very clearly laid out by Nawaz, which was “respect the vote” and the supremacy of the true spirit of democracy.
“Any deviance or adjustment to this narrative has not yet been discussed or shared with the party’s CEC or CWC, therefore any response to it is unchartered territory,” he added.
Senator Mushahidullah Khan too said that he was unaware of any such meeting; however, he added there was no way that the party could, under any circumstances, deviate from the rightful stance taken by Nawaz and every member and leader of PML-N, including Shahbaz, was a worker of the party under Nawaz’s leadership.
He said the elections, no matter how blatantly engineered, proved that the narrative of Nawaz resonated with the public and therefore was the true, uncompromisable mission and vision of the party.
Similarly, Ahsan said the rumours of Shahbaz being at a tangent to Nawaz’s narrative did not hold any weight because had Shahbaz compromised on it, he would have gotten the Punjab government. He, however, was of the view that the party needed to be careful and to evaluate carefully that how they would move forward which required a certain level of introspection as well. To reconsolidate the party ranks after the blatant robbery of PML-N mandate, he said the party would focus more on exposing the incompetence of the engineered representation.
Senator Pervaiz Rashid said such reports were mere suppositions and it was inappropriate to comment on something with un-established plausibility. He ruled out any shift in PML-N’s narrative, stating that what happened in the 2018 elections further stamped authenticity of Nawaz’s narrative that there was no respect for the vote of the people.
“The chief justice himself said that the chief election Commissioner was asleep when the counting was being done and the results were being compiled. So if the chief election commissioner was asleep, who was monitoring the results compilation,” he questioned.
Therefore, he said there was no need or possibility of any compromise on the narrative set by Nawaz because that was the narrative of the people of Pakistan.
MNA-elect Mian Javed Latif out rightly rejected any notion of diluting the essence of the narrative set by Nawaz and said every party member, including Shahbaz, wouldn’t dare to temper with the PML-N supremo’s ideology.
He said Nawaz had opted to stay in jail to fight the battle and recently he forced the prison authorities to take him back to jail instead of keeping him at the hospital, which showed how committed and motivated he was.
“There is no room for any lax adjustment or compromise in the party,” he said, adding that he was unaware whether any such meeting had taken place.
