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LAHORE – As the war of narratives intensifies in the PML-N, party’s vice-president Javed Latif has been served a show cause notice over serious allegations against the senior party leaders whom he had accused of playing in the hands of establishment.
The notice, bearing the date of 16th September (Thursday), has been issued by party’s Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal on behalf of the PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif. Javed Latif has been asked to respond to the notice within seven days.
“It has come to the notice of Quaid, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif that you appeared on a TV talk show aired on SAMAA TV on 14th of September, 2021, in which you made certain comments and allegations that were baseless and in violation of party discipline,” reads opening paragraph of the show cause notice which also reminds him that PML-N is custodian of the democratic traditions and has always played a key role in upholding the principles of democracy.
“Whereas the PML-N has the tradition of allowing maximum space to its members to express their opinions within the party in the spirit of true democracy, but at the same time, a tone and tenor in public discourse, no matter whosoever it comes from, which includes discussions in TV talk shows, that violates the ethics and discipline of the party is intolerable,” the show cause notice further reads.
In a TV talk show last Tuesday, Latif had alleged that four to five leaders in the PML-N were on an ‘assignment’ [from certain forces] to sabotage the narrative of resistance built by party Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif. Without naming any leader, he had also accused those leaders of playing the role of a spoiler whenever the campaign against the government entered a crucial stage.
In an indirect reference to Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Mian Shehbaz Sharif, he had stated that they were the ones talking about reconciliation. “They have got assignments from those who do not believe in the Constitution and the law,” he had told the news channel, reminding those leaders of the fate of Ch Nisar Ali Khan. He had also predicted that Mian Nawaz Sharif would come to Pakistan in November or December the current year. Reacting to the show-cause notice, Javed Latif told a new channel on Friday that some people from within and outside the party were not happy with him after his statement. It merits mention here that Javed Latif got close to Maryam Nawaz after his hard-hitting statement against the state institutions. “The party will not raise the slogan of ‘Pakistan Khappay’ (Long Live Pakistan) if anything happens to Maryam Nawaz,” he had said, challenging the powers that be. Following this statement, he had to undergo imprisonment for a few months on charges of keeping assets beyond means.
As the PML-N is striving hard to find a middle way to reconcile the two divergent narratives of ‘resistance and reconciliation’, the issuance of show cause notice has further exposed the fault lines of its politics. Meanwhile, an interesting statement has come from party’s Punjab president Rana Sana Ullah in the wake of PML-N’s narratives. “There is no conflict between the two apparently different narratives. The party wants to achieve a single goal of free and transparent elections [through these narratives],” he said while talking to the media here. “We want to have free and fair elections in 2023. It does not matter if the purpose is served either through ‘reconciliation’ or ‘resistance’,” he maintained. “There is no need to pursue the narrative of resistance if we get the right of fair elections through reconciliation,” he added.