"For the PML-N, there are tremendous questions and little time to find satisfactory answers before the July 25 election," observes Dawn's editorial the day after the damning Avenfield verdict sentenced Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam to prison.

Following the judgment, PML-N Chief Shehbaz Sharif had immediately held a press conference to criticise the National Accountability Bureau's process — but his "silence on the wider political engineering against parts of the PML-N" did not go unnoticed.

"Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz took a harder line in their reactions, suggesting the rift in the PML-N and in the Sharif family may continue. A divided party, even in the best of political climates, is unlikely to perform well in a general election

Today's editorial, noting that Sharif family ought to have explained in a forthright and credible way the source of the family’s vast wealth, concluded: "A second consecutive historic peaceful transition of power has been sullied by the familiar machinations of anti-democratic forces."

For now, it appears that everyone — including the party itself — is unsure of what's next for PML-N.

Read the full editorial here.