A DECISION has been made, the party has fallen into line, but great uncertainty remains.

Shahbaz Sharif is the interim president of the PML-N, Nawaz Sharif the so-called quaid for life, but neither has expressed a vision for national politics that is encouraging.

The PML-N made a stunning return to politics in Pakistan in 2008, winning an unexpectedly high number of seats in an election in which the PPP was the front runner.

But 2008 confirmed what has become an inescapable trend for the PML-N: despite objections by party leaders, the N-League is steadfastly a party of Punjab.

The party has genuine support in a region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and there is a smattering of support in Balochistan, but it cannot reasonably be argued that the PML-N is a party of Pakistan.

In effect, the PML-N has embraced the fracturing and regionalisation of the electorate in a cynical bet that because Punjab is the most populous province, sweeping elections there will carve a path to power at the centre.

With the collapse of the PPP as a national political party, the recent electoral dominance of the PML-N and the emergence of the PTI as a contender for federal power have exacerbated the Punjab-centric nature of politics in the country.

As prime minister and now as politically wounded candidate barnstorming the country, Nawaz Sharif has occasionally wandered into the so-called smaller provinces, making promises, pledging that he is interested in the socioeconomic conditions of the people, claiming that he will further the political emancipation of Pakistan — but is all this credible? Perhaps Shahbaz Sharif will be able to effect a turnaround.

Yet, there is nothing in the younger Sharif’s record so far that has suggested he is able, willing or interested in carrying the message of the PML-N to a broader, national audience.

He surely must and there are options, but first he must evince a genuine, public interest in a truly national agenda.

If Shahbaz Sharif does choose to use his stint as PML-N president to appeal to a broader, inter-provincial audience, he will have to overcome a historical belief that the PML-N is a Punjab-centric party.

That will involve not just holding rallies in other provinces, but investing time and energy in cultivating and growing a party machine in those provinces.

In the past, the PML-N has opted to align itself, for example, with anti-PPP options in rural Sindh. That is not genuine political outreach.

Poor as the PML-N’s record has been, the PTI’s lack of interest in cultivating a national political base is mystifying.

Imran Khan has held rallies in urban and rural Sindh, but it is clear that his relentless focus has been on Punjab, even though the PTI is the governing party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Punjab may be a path to power, but it is a narrow one. Better to embrace a national politics.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2018