AS most of the legal tea leaf readers had predicted over the last four days, the Supreme Court on Tuesday night dethroned Hamza Shehbaz, declared Chaudhry Parvez Elahi as the chief minister, and told President Arif Alvi to administer the oath within the next 150 minutes of the order if the governor causes any delay, after which the PML-N feels ‘trapped and deceived’ — in every sense of the word — physically, politically, and most importantly, psychologically.
The immediate reaction to the short SC order from the party supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was instructive. He tweeted: “Pakistan turned into a circus. Salute to the three (Supreme Court) judges.” His daughter and heir apparent, Maryam, called it a “judicial coup” in her reaction. Both these tweets, as party insiders explain, reflect the line of thinking in the PML-N that may now set the course of their politics. “Expect a change of policy direction as well as gear in the days to come.”
The Tuesday decision did not hit the party out of the blue; it rather concluded a long series of events that ‘generated and cemented’ a sense of deception in the party, explains a party leader, who did not want to named because the party is still in the process of debating its future course of action. In fact, none of the leaders Dawn spoke to last night wanted to be named for the same reason.
“Ever since the PML-N took over in Islamabad in April, it did not want, and was not allowed to either, to deal with Imran Khan and the PTI as outgoing parties are usually dealt with in the country — arrests, investigations, corruption cases and police chasing and rounding up party leaders,” the PML-N man said.
“Rather, the party soon sensed that the judiciary is turning out to be the new protector of Imran Khan since he started getting relief in years-old cases, which were registered even before him coming to power and included charges like terrorism. He was allowed to protest and launch long marches under judicial protection, which turned into a huge encouragement for him. He went to court on the slightest of excuses and got instant relief – a pattern that politically hit the PML-N.
Source: dawn.com/
