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Thursday March 28, 2024

Moving beyond the family

By Dr Naazir Mahmood
August 06, 2017

After the controversial decision of the Supreme Court to remove Nawaz Sharif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has been elected as the new prime minister with a thumping majority. The opposition is in disarray and was beaten by a wide margin.

There is still no sign that the PML-N may see another wave of defections – as it saw after the 1999 coup by General Musharraf. The cases in NAB can damage the Sharif family and the so-called minus-one formula may expand to become a minus-Sharif-family formula.

Whatever the implications of the Supreme Court’s verdict and the NAB cases may be, at least one point is clear: the Sharif family will do more harm to itself and to democracy in the country by elevating Shahbaz Sharif to the premiership.

This is not because Shahbaz Sharif is not a nice person or a bad politician. He has earned his credentials by performing much better in Punjab as compared to the chief ministers of other provinces. His hard work is exemplary and his no-nonsense attitude has garnered him many laurels. But that is not the point here.

The point is whether the PML-N – as the largest party in parliament and in the country – is mature enough to untangle itself from a one-family rule. The Sharif family has dominated the politics of Pakistan – especially Punjab – for over three decades now. It has weathered the thick and thin of the political terrain with courage and finesse.

It does have a solid vote bank among the people and that is likely to remain with it in the next elections as well. After the PPP, the PML-N has established itself as a major contender for power at the federal level.

Now, is the PML-N going to repeat the mistake that the PPP made after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto? The PPP had stalwarts such as Aitzaz Ahsan, Raza Rabbani, Amin Faheem, Khursheed Shah, Farhatullah Babar, Sherry Rahman, Qamar Zaman Kaira and many others. But to the dismay of many democracy-loving activists and intellectuals, a callow Bilawal was made the chairman of the party with Asif Zardari as the co-chairman.

This singularly bad decision has done tremendous harm to the PPP. The party did manage to form the government in 2008 – partly thanks to the sympathy votes it received following BB’s assassination – but that was the end of it.

When BB made the party a family affair during her two stints in power during the 1990s, she paid dearly for it. The flak she drew over the real or purported highhandedness of her husband in the 1990s had taught her a lot. The third time she was poised to win the election, partly because she had kept her husband at bay.

What BB had learnt after three decades in politics was forgotten by Zardari who once again made the party a family affair with his children and siblings.

There has been a strong perception, just as it was about Zardari during the 1990s, that his siblings have disturbingly sapped energies from Pakistan, the PPP and from Sindh in particular. The PPP has shown a lack of maturity by putting one family in charge of most of the party’s affairs. It could have proved itself to be a grownup political force by trusting other senior party leaders. But it never did. Even Salmaan Taseer is not remembered in the party as he should have been.

Now, the PML-N has an opportunity to grow up. Nawaz Sharif did show some democratic sagacity when he allowed the PTI to form its government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and didn’t try to forge a coalition government of minority parties. And then, Nawaz Sharif invited Dr Abdul Malik Baloch to form government in Balochistan with support from the PML-N, which could have formed its own government.

All these judicious decisions have not harmed the party and Nawaz Sharif has not lost his position as the party chief. When Benazir Bhutto was in jail or out of country, she retained her supremacy in the party.

It would be a wise decision if Nawaz Sharif allows Shahid Khan Abbasi to continue as PM and complete the last year of the PML-N government. Pakistan is in its 70th year and it is about time we had parties that are not dominated by a single family.

Just look at India and see what the Gandhi family has done to the Congress. In comparison, the BJP has never been dominated by a single family, even though it is a right-wing, Hindu fundamentalist party that is dangerous to the social fabric of India.

The JI is another case in point. Though it falls to the right of the spectrum and is a fundamentalist party, it has not selected its chief from a dominant family. The idea that the party can’t survive without the dominant family is wrong.

There is no point in insisting that the PM should always be from one family. Shahbaz Sharif should be allowed to remain the CM of Punjab and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi should show his mettle as a party PM rather than a family loyalist. If the Sharif family can promote and bring forth more political leaders, it will be a great service to democracy in this country – a service that even the PPP has not been able to render.

The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK and works in Islamabad.

Email: Mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk