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PML-N no longer feels heat of Brig Imtiaz campaign
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=196567
Friday, September 04, 2009
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which came under tremendous pressure and was on the defensive for a week because of highly disparaging statements from two former spymasters, now feels that it has overcome the embarrassing situation with its own deft counter-campaign.
In background discussions, the PML-N leaders say the vilification drive started fading fast when they directly attacked the sponsors of the campaign. This was a thinly veiled reference to President Asif Ali Zardari.
The PML-N is now satisfied that its aggressive response to lies and half truths, spread day in and day out for over a week, did the trick of putting the sponsors of the campaign on the back foot. They were left with no option but to clarify their own positions, one PML-N leader told The News.
He said although it was the old wine in an old bottle, it did begin damaging the PML-N because of the immense publicity of the allegations of the spent up former spymasters through the electronic media.
According to the PML-N leader, if the purpose was to distract the public attention from the actual burning issues like Musharrafs trial on high treason charges, undoing the 17th Amendment etc, the powerful campaign did accomplish it to some extent but only for a short term.
He said that the propaganda did not finish for good the real issues and it could not unless these were resolved. He said that with the campaign having receded now, the focus had again shifted to the actual problems confronting Pakistan.
Another PML-N leader said that this short spell of intense war of words exposed the acrimony, mistrust and misunderstanding existing deep down between the two major political parties, the PPP and the PML-N.
This interlude proved that their relations were so brittle that they could be further rocked even by a couple of damning statements by different people, who might or might not have been launched by any one of these two parties, he said.
The PML-N admits that it was ironical that there was no contact between the top PML-N and the PPP leaders to bring down the temperature when the war was at its peak. Only in its last days when the campaign was about to die down, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani called Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to quieten the situation and appreciated his efforts to the effect.
But there was no such initiative from President Asif Ali Zardari. He and Nawaz Sharif continued to stay away from each other. Already, there were no signs of an early meeting between them. But now with the latest round of fighting, the chances of such a session in the near future have become nonexistent.
Even when they had last met in August at the Sharif brothers Raiwind estate, they had not covered much ground towards any durable political reconciliation. Their differences on key issues persisted although there was a realisation in some circles of both the parties that that their divorce would strengthen the prophets of dooms, who want to see the democratic system wrapped up.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=196567
Friday, September 04, 2009
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which came under tremendous pressure and was on the defensive for a week because of highly disparaging statements from two former spymasters, now feels that it has overcome the embarrassing situation with its own deft counter-campaign.
In background discussions, the PML-N leaders say the vilification drive started fading fast when they directly attacked the sponsors of the campaign. This was a thinly veiled reference to President Asif Ali Zardari.
The PML-N is now satisfied that its aggressive response to lies and half truths, spread day in and day out for over a week, did the trick of putting the sponsors of the campaign on the back foot. They were left with no option but to clarify their own positions, one PML-N leader told The News.
He said although it was the old wine in an old bottle, it did begin damaging the PML-N because of the immense publicity of the allegations of the spent up former spymasters through the electronic media.
According to the PML-N leader, if the purpose was to distract the public attention from the actual burning issues like Musharrafs trial on high treason charges, undoing the 17th Amendment etc, the powerful campaign did accomplish it to some extent but only for a short term.
He said that the propaganda did not finish for good the real issues and it could not unless these were resolved. He said that with the campaign having receded now, the focus had again shifted to the actual problems confronting Pakistan.
Another PML-N leader said that this short spell of intense war of words exposed the acrimony, mistrust and misunderstanding existing deep down between the two major political parties, the PPP and the PML-N.
This interlude proved that their relations were so brittle that they could be further rocked even by a couple of damning statements by different people, who might or might not have been launched by any one of these two parties, he said.
The PML-N admits that it was ironical that there was no contact between the top PML-N and the PPP leaders to bring down the temperature when the war was at its peak. Only in its last days when the campaign was about to die down, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani called Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to quieten the situation and appreciated his efforts to the effect.
But there was no such initiative from President Asif Ali Zardari. He and Nawaz Sharif continued to stay away from each other. Already, there were no signs of an early meeting between them. But now with the latest round of fighting, the chances of such a session in the near future have become nonexistent.
Even when they had last met in August at the Sharif brothers Raiwind estate, they had not covered much ground towards any durable political reconciliation. Their differences on key issues persisted although there was a realisation in some circles of both the parties that that their divorce would strengthen the prophets of dooms, who want to see the democratic system wrapped up.
