Nawaz, Imran the political adversaries

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has never faced a political challenger as Imran Khan, in his 40 years political career including the one he faced from late Benazir Bhutto, as the PTI chairman now sees himself as Sharif's alternate in politics, particularly in Punjab.

There has always been an element of 'respect,' for each other among them, but in the last one year, the political rivalry become too tense and personal and likely to get worst and more tense before the next general elections. 

The situation is far more different today than it was in 2013 elections, when PM Sharif first visited Imran to inquire about his injury and health and termed him a good political opponent. 

He later met him at his Banigala residence in the same year, when sources said, was former army chief Raheel Sharif asked Sharif to persuade Imran not to oppose army operation in Noth Waziristan, as he was against military options. Imran accepted the request and welcomed Sharif. 

Imran attended the APC called by the PM, after Army Public School, Peshawar massacre in December 2014, but by the time they become serious political adversaries after 126-days PTI dharna at Islamabad. They did shake hand in the parliament when Chinese president during his visit to Pakistan, addressed the joint session. "Your dharna caused Pakistan lots of damage,' Sharif said to Imran with a smile. 

It is still a long way to go for Imran to oust the mighty political power of the Sharifs, whom many critics called 'Takht-e-Lahore.' They have been center of power politics since early 80s, and went through many political crises, but the present is by far the toughest for the family and the party. 

The PML-N and the Sharifs blame one man for all this and considered him the 'tool' of conspiracy. Imran thinks otherwise and believes what Bhuttos and PPP could not do despite their political experience, he did it in 20 years of his politics. 

Benazir, despite her charisma and strong personality, never posed a serious challenge for Sharif. One of the reasons has been her failure to make Punjab, as political base, which her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto always considered. 

Imran, on the other hand despite his constituency in Mianwali, always regarded as typical Lahori and had spent his best days in Lahore's Zaman Park, where he also formed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 1996. 

Last elections in 2013 was an eye-opener for the Sharifs and though the PML-N won polls and got maximum seats from Lahore, as well its inner circles taken by surprise, the kind of votes Imran and PTI had pulled. It was a wake-up call for the Sharifs, but they did not wake up even after October 30, 2011 historic jalsa of the PTI, the biggest since BB's April 10, 1986. 

Today, he is the only challenger for Sharif and left the PPP and others far behind. This may still not be easy for the man from Mianwali, as he still has to win elections in 2018, with or without Nawaz Sharif. One thing is certain, Imran's politics has caused the most serious dent in Sharif's political base, both in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the two provinces where PML-N has strong pockets. It lost the KP in 2013. The Sharifs have to do a lot in retaining its politics as well as its strong political base intact.

Therefore, as political adversary, Nawaz Sharif's camp considered Imran a serious threat. In the last four years of PML-N government and particularly after 'Panama leaks, the political rivalry has turned more personal than political, as Imran's politics led to a situation where Sharif family left with no other option but to appear before Joint Investigation Team, a bid too humiliating. 

The situation had never been as tense between the two as it is today. In fact, they were political allies till 2008, when Nawaz Sharif's decision to participate in the elections led to the break-up of alliance, comprising PML-N, PTI, JI and some other parties, who had earlier decided not to participate in any polls under former president Pervez Musharraf.

Sharif once welcomed Imran's decision to enter politics whom he once regarded a cricketing legend and his hero. Since Mian Sahib also has special love for the game and used to play in their early days, he once termed Imran's entry into politics as a good omen. Imran, on the other hand, also used to admire Sharif's development work in the Punjab and also supported his Shaukat Khanum Hospital project.

Even when Imran becomes critical to Sharif and Benazir's politics and supported Musharraf, the two opposition leaders never realized that he was emerging as a political threat to their politics. Imran, too, often feel frustrated in his early days in politics when he got one seat of his own from Mianwali in 2002, and all his candidates faced humiliating defeat. 

In 2007, Sharif and Imran again came close to each other in an alliance and decided that they would boycott any elections under former president Musharraf and jointly criticized Musharraf-Benazir's NRO. 

BB was a powerful leader and when she decided to return and ditched Musharraf and his advice not to return, she was received by a million crowd. Her rising popularity once again brought NS-IK close. 

She convinced NS to participate in the elections and the two agreed to oust Musharraf through elections. The move surprised both Imran and Jamaat-e-Islami, who blamed Nawaz for breaking the accord. Since then Imran never looked back and today, he posed the challenge, which the Sharifs have never come across in their political career. 

Can Sharif bounce back from a situation where more than his political career is at stake and that, too, from a man who once had been too junior in politics, but change the political discourse through his own votebank? The Sharifs are down, but are they politically out as well. We still have to wait for next polls. Irrespective of the outcome of Panama, politics should not go so low as to become rivalry or enmity. 

This writer is a senior colunist and analyst of GEO, The News and Jang

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO