Well-played Mian Saheb

Well-played Mian Saheb! The PML-N supremo and Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Nawaz Sharif, has played his innings very well although the test match that he was made to play was not an easy task since the rival camp comprised a team of hardliners with Imran Khan as its skipper.
No doubt the ice has broken after a long spell with wisdom and sense prevailing in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ranks or plainly speaking, in PTI’s leadership cadre. Nevertheless the credit for all this goes to a great extent to Mian Nawaz Sharif in the same manner in which a bowler is credited for sending a good batsman home although the role of the catch-taking fielder is no less pivotal.
Even apart from this bowler analogy, the ruling PML-N’s team also deserves a pat on the back for playing this game of nerves with extraordinary patience and farsightedness. Had the element of patience (exercised by the government moguls) been absent in the whole deal, things would have been much different from what they are today. In that case, if the situation had not been handled with care, not only that the elected setup would have suffered severe jolts- or even rolled back- but that the entire scenario would have ended up in total chaos and disappointment for all the players in the field, whether it be PML-N, PTI or even other politicians enjoying public mandate.
Certainly, this patience owes to the years of passing through the mill on the part of Mian Nawaz Sharif in particular. Many sane ones usually opine that suffering does lead to at least one thing: that it tends to make you wiser and patient too. But there are examples from human history, as well, that sometimes the suffering unnerves the people at the receiving end. The PM has, however, proved to be a cool calculator and foreseer of events that reflect his patient ways of handling tough and tricky situations.
Things were not that easy to handle given the stringent and pinching stance and utterances of Imran Khan. The

allegations leveled by Khan were not something that has never happened in this country till recently. Rigging has been a routine affair in our elections. That is a different thing that systematic or highly organised (if not institutions’ organised) rigging would be done rarely and not as a regular affair that is done on a constant footing.
However, irrespective of the fact whether rigging would be done systematically or individually, this background of rigging had lent some credence to Khan’s allegations and people started believing on the face of it that some hanky panky might have been resorted to. It is also a standard social trend or practice that the ordinary public barely looks deep into the things to such a minute extent to differentiate between rigging by individuals and organised, systematic rigging.
Still it doesn’t at all mean that people are simpletons who can be easily misled now in this era of mass awareness and media exposure. The credit also goes to PTI’s leadership especially its chief, Imran Khan, for raising the issue vociferously for which he also succeeded in sufficiently mobilising the public opinion as well as media. If his efforts bear fruit, the people and the system will be permanently rid of electoral malpractices and loopholes, thus precluding the possibility of all types of small-scale or large-scale rigging forever.
It is of course a change for the better that has now been witnessed in the form of PTI’s post-resignation return to Assemblies and of course, after the PML-N-PTI agreement on Judicial Commission. And although it always takes two to tango (both the parties coming to terms after deliberations, albeit belatedly), the key factors turned out to be cool calculation and farsightedness of PML-N leaders in general and the PM in particular. It now appears that the patience exercised by the PM was also driven by his belief that things would go smooth and fine at the end of the day, after having turned full circle. It was just like making a prophecy though nobody considers Mian Nawaz Sharif as a foreteller a la Nostradamus. But his deep insight into the political realm did work well to pave the way for political harmony that has started prevailing on the national political canvas and that is here to stay.