Lahore:
While Punjab Minister Maryam Nawaz has drawn comparisons between Pakistan’s most important opponent, terrorists and PTI – the country’s largest political party – the federal government has insisted that its offer of dialogue with the party remains on the table.
According to prime ministerial lawyer Akeel Malik, the government’s priority was to stabilize the political ship, even when divergent votes within PML-N continue to muddy the water.
Although PTI has seen its street muscle reduces over the past two years, its ability to rattle the PML-N government remains limited for now. However, a fraction within the reigning party, apparently led by Maryam Nawaz, is not able to let go of the old PlayBook on PTI-Bashing showing a tinør to the voter’s psychology.
As the latest earlier shows, political mudling is a double -edged sword. During his time with power as prime minister, Imran Khan PML-N made his punching bag in almost every speech, but the gracious attacks often came back and draws Flak himself from his own base, who urged him to rise over political pettiness.
Maryam seems to have taken a page out of Imran Khan’s book and held her guns trained at PTI. Even when the federal government seems to make genuine efforts to lower the political temperature, PML-N leaders, including Maryam and Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, continues to fan the flames.
Recently, under an address to students, Maryam drew parallels between terrorists, India and PTI. The comment snowballed online, with many mistakenly interpreted it as CM -branding PTI a greater threat than India or terrorism.
However, it is relevant to note that Maryam has previously referred to Imran Khan as more dangerous than both terrorism and coronavirus.
On the other hand, the federal government has left the door to dialogue despite PTI’s sustained rejection of stepping through it.
In a speech with the Express Pakinomist, Barrister Akeel clarified that the main minister had spoken in a “specific context” during her speech.
However, he added that PTI had previously acted against the country’s interests more than once. “Which political party goes against its own country by writing to the IMF and asking it to withhold loans? And PTI has shown no remorse for what it has done,” he said.
“As far as the government is concerned, our doors are still open to PTI,” he added. “The committee formed to engage with PTI remains intact. All PTI must do is express its wish in the National Assembly. However, they do not believe in political dialogue, nor do they appear to be interested in solving anything.”
He denied any internal party operation on the question of PTI.
When asked about the conflicting attitudes of the federal and provincial ministries, where the federal minister praised PTI’s social media to promote the country’s narrative, while Punjab’s Azma Bukhari accused it of undermining national interests, Akeel defended both attitudes.
He explained that while the whole country had come together to fight disinformation on digital platforms, some PTI-social media activists continued to circulate AI-generated images to wizard political leaders.
Former spokesman for the Nawaz family, Muhammad Zubair, who spoke with the Express Pakinomist, described the Maryam Nawaz-led group as the party’s “Hawks” in relation to PTI, while Shehbaz Sharif, true to his temper, represented the reconciling fraction.
He noted that the Hawkish fraction was deeply cautious with PTI’s sustained support base and tried to decide to neutralize the party. “It’s a reality that Imran Khan for Maryam Nawaz is more of a threat than Modi,” he said. “Shehbaz, on the other hand, is not a hardliner.”
Zubair suggested that Maryam Nawaz should realize that PTI in its current form was not so potent. “Why continue to call them out? If the country can reach a truce with India, why not with a political rival?” He asked.
“If I were Maryam’s advisor, I would ask her to care about PTI.”
