PML-N going slow on nominating caretakers on purpose?

LAHORE: With less than a week left for formation of a caretaker government, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) has not held even a single meeting to finalise the names for the provincial caretaker governments, The News has learnt.

The party manifesto is also far from any conclusive stage.Other than the Sharif brothers, the party leadership appears to be in a state of indecision, confusion and concerns regarding a range of matters and the approach of the party top brass. These matters include the proposition for caretaker federal and provincial governments, appointment of PML-N Punjab leadership and the party manifesto, among others.

A number of provincial and federal party leaders, sitting MPAs and MNAs, when contacted for their comments on the issue, they appeared to be confused and concerned. Some argued that the entire exercise would be pointless, as the powers-that-be had already decided to strike down the PML-N nominees; others were at a complete loss to understand why the party was not taking up the issue seriously. However, all of them were unwilling to speak on record, as they feared the leadership might perceive their views as distrust in the top tier.

Sources close to Nawaz revealed that one of the reasons for the lax approach towards the caretaker setup is that the PML-N Quaid is not very optimistic about the elections being held on time and suspects that the caretaker setup might be extended. They revealed that the PML-N Quaid wanted minimum participation in the appointment of the caretaker setup because such a passive approach would strengthen his position later on if he had to disown it in the event of an extended caretaker term.

However, there appears to be a split in the party vis-à-vis this approach, as some believe that the PML-N should push harder for their nominees at federal and provincial levels because even in the event of an extended caretaker setup, it would beneficial for the party.

The PML-N had been very actively engaged with technocrats and civil society for their 2013 manifesto. However, this time round, the manifesto committee was formed 10 days before the end of the government term with that exercise completely ruled out.

In a kind of last-minute huddle, the ministers of various core departments like energy, finance, planning and development and others have been told to send in their recommendations in the form of a document, which would be used as source material to craft the final manifesto.

The Punjab leadership of the party is still undefined; however, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif is acting as the de-facto Punjab president and is dealing with the applications for award of party tickets for the upcoming elections. This too is not going down well with the senior Punjab leaders of the party, who find it rather humiliating.

With less than a week to go, the Punjab opposition leader Mahmoodur Rasheed too declined any consultation with the PML-N leaders over the caretaker nominees, arguing that it was too late. While commenting on the issue, he said that these things cannot be settled in one or two meetings. This practice now would only be cosmetic and would lead to allegations of non-cooperation, which is why there is no point of engaging with the PML-N on this matter, he concluded.

PML-N Secretary Information Senator Mushahidullah admitted that there was not a single meeting of the provincial party leadership of any province regarding the caretaker nominations till date. When he was asked about this total disregard for very important issues related to party organisation and 2018 elections with the deadline days away, he reposed his trust in the party leadership, rebuffed notions of confusion and concerns among the party members and expressed his optimism regarding these consultative meetings being held before the PML-N government term ends and the caretaker setup takes over.

Senator Pervaiz Rasheed also was of the view that the entire party was united under PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif and they trusted the decision making skills of the three-time prime minister of the country. He said these are secondary matters and the PML-N was focusing on what really matters, which is the Election Day 2018.