IT was as good a welcome as the PML-N could have hoped for. A sizable crowd of supporters had gathered for Nawaz Sharif at Lahore’s Greater Iqbal Park yesterday evening as he returned to Pakistan after four years of self-imposed exile.

The energy and excitement were palpable as he made a return to the limelight, even if Mr Sharif initially seemed impassive. The nation only got a glimpse of the emotion that must have been roiling within as he was embraced by his daughter, Maryam Nawaz.

As the two hugged, both were overwhelmed. It made for a particularly poignant moment. In his speech, however, Mr Sharif made no secret of the fact that he was controlling himself with great difficulty. He shared a verse suggesting that his tears would flood the world if he were to start dwelling on the trials and tribulations he had endured.

Mr Sharif was keen to remind the gathered crowd that he had been made to pay an immense personal cost. “There are some wounds that never heal,” he said. He had lost his wife while in jail and could not even say a last goodbye. He was unable to bury his mother. “The two used to greet me at my doorstep whenever I returned home from abroad,” he reminisced. “I lost them to politics.”

He also recalled his daughter’s arrest, even though she had not been involved in his politics. Yet, where his speech was heavy on pathos, it seemed devoid of force. Gone was the Nawaz Sharif of the ‘vote ko izzat do’ days — this version cut a much tamer figure.

Though he was still asking, ‘mujhey kyun nikala?’, he did not seem keen to press the question. In fact, he consciously avoided speaking about the judiciary and military’s transgressions in the political domain. All his supporters got was an oblique reference for the need to not let the past be repeated.

It was clear that Mr Sharif seeks a narrative reset. His speech was heavy on nostalgia for 2017; on motorways, the rupee-dollar exchange rate, the price of bread, the price of petrol and electricity, poverty and unemployment. But instead of there being any acknowledgement of his own bad policies, some of which have greatly augmented Pakistan’s present crisis, he still seemed keen to sell populist pipe dreams.

Perhaps he ought to be forgiven — this was, after all, his first speech upon his return. More will follow. However, if the PML-N’s economic policy hasn’t budged from the Dar days, as it seemed, Mr Sharif will find it difficult to deliver on his promises. Keeping all of this aside, it was good to see him back in action. Let’s hope he seeks a fair contest, instead of being hand-delivered another stint in power.

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2023