ISLAMABAD: Former interior minister and senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Friday hailed his party’s decision to nominate Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as the candidate for prime minister in the coming general elections.

However, he cautioned that this would work only if Mr Sharif was fully authorised and free to work. “The decision to nominate Shahbaz Sharif can prove positive if he is allowed to work according to his vision and his capabilities,” said Mr Nisar in a statement.

Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif recently nominated his younger brother as the future prime ministerial candidate on behalf of the party he leads. Sharing his views regarding the decision, Mr Nisar hinted in his statement that certain forces in the country or the ruling party would not want the younger Sharif to work according to his will.

Mr Nisar, who chose to not retain his ministry after Nawaz Sharif’s dismissal from public office and the dissolution of the federal cabinet, owned up to his differences with the party leadership, and advised them to avoid taking emotionally charged decisions during the current volatile political situation.

“The PML-N, as a political and ruling party, is passing through a critical phase and therefore decisions should be made [based] on logic rather than emotions,” he said, adding that important decisions should be taken after a political consultative process. “Political parties are not run through tweets and tickers,” he said, further warning: “Neither [can] foisting decisions made by non-political elements improve the stature of political parties.”

The former interior minister rejected Nawaz Sharif’s tactic to take on the judiciary in public, saying: “I am against the policy of confrontation because I believed that the PML-N should focus on its political adversaries and refrain from being embroiled in unnecessary controversies.”

“No political worker could even think of becoming part of an anti-judiciary movement,” he said, advising the ruling party to avoid confrontation with the judiciary on the issue of the Panama Papers case.

The ex-minister said the PML-N was not just a political entity but a democratic party, and added that it was delightful that there was freedom of expression in the PML-N. “Perhaps on the basis of my 33-year-long political experience I still believe that the need for freedom of expression is never as great as it is today,” he added.

The PML-N leader said he did not consider someone a politician until they had contested elections at the local council level. Non-political people had no right to express their opinion and give advice to a political party, he said. “These non-political elements who want to formulate a narrative that targets national institutions can never make any place among the masses.”

Mr Nisar said in view of the present circumstances and the upcoming election, it was important that the PML-N formulate an effective and consensus-based narrative. “This narrative, besides encompassing solutions for political, economic and national issues, must reflect the performance of the party during past four and a half years. Only such a narrative can enable us win the support of the masses,” he urged.

He said there was need for such a narrative in view of international developments and direct and indirect pressures on the country.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2017