{"id":7237,"date":"2023-09-24T03:57:12","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T03:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/war-of-narratives-worries-pml-n-ranks\/"},"modified":"2023-09-24T03:57:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T03:57:12","slug":"war-of-narratives-worries-pml-n-ranks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/war-of-narratives-worries-pml-n-ranks\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018War of narratives\u2019 worries PML-N ranks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>LAHORE: The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1776664\">abrupt change<\/a> in the stance of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif towards former army generals and retired judges is causing unease among party ranks, with many leaders fearing that such as bold engagement could invite the wrath of the establishment.<\/p>\n<p>Of late, the PML-N appears to have become the \u2018favourite\u2019 political party of the powers that be and the rigid stance of the elder Sharif \u2014 seeking accountability of former COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa, ex-spymaster Faiz Hamid, and former CJPs Asif Khosa and Saqib Nisar \u2014 may disturb the \u201cideal equation\u201d with the establishment, party insiders believe.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1776949\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>After four years in London, Nawaz Sharif is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1775629\">set to return on Oct 21<\/a>. With a month left before his arrival, he does not seem in any mood to abandon his long-standing demand for the \u2018strict accountability\u2019 of generals and judges for their alleged involvement in a \u2018conspiracy\u2019 to oust him from power in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>However, the party\u2019s current president, his younger brother Shehbaz, has tried his best to convince his brother to review his strategy in a recent London huddle, but to no avail. Now, the party sits on the edge of a precipice \u201cwary of potential backlash\u201d, insiders say.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote-level-1\">\n<p>Insiders believe Nawaz\u2019s persistence with demand for judges, generals\u2019 accountability can disturb party\u2019s \u2018ideal equation\u2019 with powers that be<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Sources told <em>Dawn<\/em> that in a meeting with PML-N representatives and workers last week, Shehbaz Sharif expressed his displeasure over a news briefing given from London on the accountability issue. The sources said the PML-N president took exception to reports that the subject of accountability was raised during an earlier meeting where he and Nawaz spoke to party workers, claiming that no such a thing was ever mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>Some party leaders <em>Dawn<\/em> spoke to said they were wary of a potential backlash of the \u2018anti-generals and judges\u2019 narrative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to be very careful and calculated in the anti-Bajwa narrative. What happened to the PML-N after its decision to try Gen Musharraf under Article 6 in 2014 is in front of everyone. Let bygo\u00adnes be bygones. Who knows where this slogan of accountability will take the PML-N, especially the elder Sharif, in the current political scenario,\u201d a member of the former PDM government opined.<\/p>\n<p>According to the leader, the party was in a comfortable spot to clinch power and any \u2018wrong move\u2019 may reverse this progress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should not forget the fate of Imran Khan and his PTI,\u201d the party leader said and added \u201cmost of the leaders were questioning the need to adopt a policy of confrontation\u201d at a time when the PTI had been tagged as the \u201canti-establishment party\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe PML-N has many other things\/achievements it can use to build its narrative\u2026 why taking on former generals is so necessary to grab votes,\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n<p>Another leader told <em>Dawn<\/em> that judging from the reaction to Nawaz Sharif\u2019s comments about the accountability of generals and judges, it is perhaps \u201cpragmatic to drop the topic till the elections\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we come into power, this accountability issue can be raised again. Right now, we should focus our narrative on the economic crisis, the blame game is not offering any solutions,\u201d the leader said.<\/p>\n<p>Former interior minister Rana Sanaullah has, of late, been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1777248\">defending<\/a> the narrative put forth by the elder Sharif on TV, terming it a principled stance. \u201cWe will not budge,\u201d he said, adding it was necessary to expose the \u2018real characters\u2019 involved in the ouster of Nawaz government and causing the economy to nose-dive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018All is well\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a conversation with <em>Dawn<\/em>, PML-N Information Secretary Azma Bokhari did not agree with the view that there was an unease within the party over Mr Nawaz\u2019s demand for accountability of former generals and judges. \u201cNawaz Sharif will return on Oct 21 and tell the people at Minar-i-Pakistan the same day about the causes of Pakistan\u2019s problems and will present their solutions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if the PML-N might open the door of confrontation with the military establishment \u2014 like PTI chiarman Imran Khan did \u2014 if it did not stop targeting Gen Bajwa, Ms Bokhari said: \u201cWe can\u2019t be compared with Mr Khan. No action against him and his party was taken even when he called the establishment animal or \u2018Dirty Harry\u2019. The PTI faced action after crossing a red line by attacking the military installations on May 9.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Word of caution<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not only PML-N leaders, but some former allies are also asking the elder Sharif to have a change of heart.<\/p>\n<p>Both the PPP and the Istehkham-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) have dropped a word of caution to the Sharifs in this regard.<\/p>\n<p>PPP senior leader Khursheed Shah on Saturday advised the elder Sharif against seeking action against Gen Bajwa and Gen Hameed. In an interview on <em>DawnNewsTV<\/em>, Shah said the PML-N\u2019s plan to go after the two former military leaders seemed \u201cvery difficult\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid anyone touch the man who was sentenced under Article 6 of the Constitution? He was later hospitalised, and subsequently transferred to Dubai,\u201d Mr Shah remarked, referring to late military dictator Musharraf. \u201cLet\u2019s refrain from engaging in such conflicts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>IPP Patron Jahangir Tareen also wants the elder Sharif to let go of his feud with ex-generals. \u201cNawaz Sharif shouldn\u2019t name personalities, especially Gen Bajwa and an incumbent SC judge who is going to be the future chief justice of Pakistan for his politics,\u201d Mr Tareen advised.<\/p>\n<p><em>Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAHORE: The abrupt change in the stance of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif towards former army generals and retired judges is causing unease among party ranks, with many leaders fearing that such as bold engagement could invite the wrath of the establishment. Of late, the PML-N appears to have become the \u2018favourite\u2019 political party of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/09\/24072748894d70b.png?r=072816","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}