HYBRID set-ups have internal power struggle built into them. Like me, if you find some of the statements confusing — signalling differences of opinion within the top tiers of the major political parties — you must determine whether this is a precursor to something dramatic or merely a struggle to create some elbow room in the straitjacket these parties find themselves in.

Apologies for the mouthful above. Before you give up on this column and move on to the next, let me explain what I am trying to say. Just as the PML-N is contributing to the establishment’s ever-expanding footprint (as did the PTI before it), it is also clear the party isn’t exactly content with the status quo.

Don’t you consider it bizarre that while Shehbaz Sharif is the prime minister and party supremo Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz holds the reins to Pakistan’s biggest province, with over 50 per cent of the country’s population and votes, senior leaders such as Rana Sanaullah and Javed Latif continue to moan and groan about how the ‘real’ power is vested elsewhere?

If Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif functions as a junior partner in a hybrid regime, where he takes the back seat in key areas such as the economy, law and order, and control of all federal law-enforcement/ investigation/ intelligence agencies, surely he can’t be happy governing with these and other constraints.

The PML-N isn’t alone in this struggle for space as similar mixed signals come almost daily from the PTI as well.

For instance, the........

© Dawn