The Party’s New Face

Maryam Nawaz is now the PML-N top gun, but not everyone is happy

ISLAMABAD: Although Maryam Nawaz, the political heir of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, has managed to convince former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to remain in the party fold, she still has to struggle hard to establish her hold on the party and keep it intact.

A senior PML-N leader, believed to be part of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s camp, told Bol News on condition of anonymity, that the decision to elevate Maryam Nawaz to the post of senior vice-president and chief organiser of the party did not go down well with many of Nawaz Sharif’s time-tested comrades and senior party leaders.

They are finding it hard to reconcile with this development, believing it is tantamount to handing over the party command to the lady. The decision has not been appreciated by some members of the Sharif clan either. Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, for example, who was earlier looking after the party’s affairs in the Punjab, has now distanced himself from the party and absented himself from the political scene, having flown out of the country, ostensibly to take care of his ailing mother.

It is widely believed that the decision to award Maryam Nawaz the new assignment was taken unilaterally by Nawaz Sharif, and the party’s central leadership was not taken into confidence regarding the matter. This had led to the resignation of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as senior vice-president of the party.

And while, readily or otherwise, the party as a whole seems to have accepted the decision, it has exposed the differences within the Sharif family. Now that Hamza Shehbaz, who was looking after the party’s organisational matters in the Punjab, and was very much one of its mainstays for the past couple of decades — even when the family was in exile in Saudi Arabia — is now out of the loop, it is considered that it will be tough for Maryam to develop her clout within the party, especially among Hamza’s hardcore supporters.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, meanwhile, who was long considered close to Nawaz Sharif and had accepted the slot of senior-vice president of the party on his insistence, was shocked when he was not taken into the loop either regarding the appointment of Maryam Nawaz as senior-vice president. This, disclosed PML-N sources, made him feel virtually redundant. So, they added, his decision to tender his resignation from the SVP position was all but inevitable.

However, Maryam regained his support, and it was her persuasion that led to Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s presence at the PML-N workers convention in Rawalpindi. Unlike Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who had parted ways with Nawaz Sharif on the ground that he could not work under juniors like Maryam in the party, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi tackled the matter more graciously, saying that he had allied himself in politics with Nawaz Sharif for well over three decades and he remains his leader. “I have resigned only to give way to Ms. Maryam Nawaz to take the party forward,” said Abbasi, “as I believe my presence in the office may hamper her free handling of the party’s affairs.”

Sources close to Maryam Nawaz disclosed that the overt criticism by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on party policies had irked the top level of party leaders, but no disciplinary action was taken against them because the party could not afford fissures within its ranks at this critical juncture, when the party is facing multiple challenges both, internally and in the political arena.

Commenting on the challenges confronting Maryam Nawaz, political analysts said that she had benefited from the fact that there were only a very few leaders who had overtly reacted to her installation as chief organiser and senior vice-president of the party negatively, even though the majority of them have serious reservations about it.

They are keeping quiet for the time being in the hope that party’s supreme leader Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan soon and take charge of the party. Khawaja Saad Rafique, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Khawaja Asif, Rana Tanvir, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, among several others, are believed to be part of this cadre of senior party leaders who are biding their time. Adding to their decision to uncomplainingly allow the current status quo to continue, is the fact that they all know well that without the support of the party they cannot win back their seats in the upcoming elections. The case of Nisar Ali Khan, once considered undefeatable in two constituencies, lies before them. When he stood for elections without a PML-N ticket he had lost from both constituencies from where he had returned a winner in all the elections since 1985.

Political analysts said that the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has been in transition since the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. And although Shehbaz Sharif has stepped in his shoes as party president and remains heavily influenced by his older brother, he has developed his own clout in the party and in the process, he has pushed away many of those who were close to Nawaz Sharif.

Now again, after the party’s reins have been placed in the hands of Maryam Nawaz, things are likely to fall into another transitionary state. She will most certainly draw back and promote those close to her father, while simultaneously carving out and strengthening her own group within the party. In her recent address at the workers convention, she snubbed all those who are objecting to her new assignment, and said that the party workers and supporters have endorsed her appointment by extending overwhelming support to her.

Although after Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz is unarguably the main crowd puller in the party, whether she will be able to reorganise the party on modern lines and effectively handle and take along the ‘uncles’ in the party in the coming months, will determine her future as party supremo.