NAWAZ Sharif is planning ahead. Perhaps confident of his chances in the next election, he seems keen to want to avoid the run-ins he has had with security establishments during past stints in power.

In general, it seems like he wants to take a strong stance on civilian supremacy and wants some guarantees that he will be able to run the country unhindered this time around. It is a carefully calculated power move.

The state seems to have all but run out of options, and Mr Sharif is leveraging the opportunity to push back on the issues that are most important to him. For example, he has repeatedly tested the waters by reiterating his demand for the accountability of those who ‘conspired’, in his view, to push him out of power in 2017.

Demanding such accountability just months ago could have rapidly backfired on the PML-N. Younger brother Shehbaz Sharif would always be quick to soothe nerves each time Mr Sharif publicly put forth this demand.

Not so more recently, while Mr Sharif has gradually grown more insistent on this ‘accountability drive’.

“Who ruined the country? Who brought the country to this point today? Why are the poor starving today? […] All these things are eating up the country,” Mr Sharif noted while addressing party leaders on Friday.

On Saturday, with Shehbaz Sharif by his side, he went further, “Those who have brought the country to this point, they should also be held accountable. They should be asked how you meted out such treatment [to] this country.”

In the same gathering, the former prime minister also defended his position on the Kargil issue, while stressing the need to improve ties with neighbouring countries, especially India.

He also recalled the visits of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 and Narendra Modi in 2015, rhetorically asking if anyone had come to Pakistan before them. It was clear that the thrice-ousted prime minister was keen to assert himself from the outset this time around.

It is encouraging to see that Nawaz Sharif remains committed to a strong civilian government and an independent foreign policy, and he is fully entitled, as a former chief executive, to pursue accountability and push the overreaching arms of the state back into their respective domains.

However, Mr Sharif should perhaps not consider himself the ‘ideal’ candidate just yet. It is clear that he still has a weak understanding of the Pakistani economy, which seems heavily influenced by the thoroughly discredited ideas of Ishaq Dar.

Therefore, while his ideas about civilian supremacy and assertive policymaking are commendable, until both he and his party figure out what good fiscal management entails, there is not much they can offer inflation-weary Pakistanis desperate for growth and meaningful change.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023