Madam Chief Minister! Its narrative that matters more than performance in politics

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has expressed the opinion that "performance and narrative are two different things. Narratives are created by those who cannot perform".

How much does this have to do with reality? A great example in this regard is Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, who is always available for everyone whether he is in the government or the opposition. During the tenure of General Musharraf, he did record development works as the Chief Minister of Punjab, was also fully active in the political field, but was out of the game in the 2008 elections, then had to unite with the People's Party to share in power because of the opposition. On the contrary, they did not have any narrative, and let's say that Makha could not break Laffin's narrative.

Nawaz Sharif started politics under General Ziaul Haq's Martial Law. He became the finance minister and then became the chief minister of Punjab in the non-party elections of 1985, did a lot of development work, worked hard on party politics and mingled with the people. In the 1988 elections, when there was a popular wave in support of the People's Party, Nawaz Sharif created a narrative representing the opposing forces. The result was that he not only became the President of the Muslim League but also became the Prime Minister after winning the 1990 elections. Adopted such policies that created a solid infrastructure that started to advance Pakistan economically. He did the most development works including the motorways, but during this time he also adopted a rich political narrative.

In 1993, after the removal of his government by the godfather of the establishment, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, he became an invincible public leader by adopting the narrative of "I will not accept dictation". Based on this narrative, General Musharraf had to impose martial law to remove him, who became the Prime Minister for the second time. When he became the Prime Minister for the third time in 2013, it was also a joint fruit of narrative and performance.

PTI founder Imran Khan's "perfections" to date and what he has done is just a narrative game, otherwise, his performance proved to be disastrous for the country and the nation in many respects. Before going ahead, let's look back a little, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was undoubtedly one of the greatest and most beloved leaders, owed his entire popularity to the anti-General Ayub narrative.

Today, as a result of the global situation, the spread of information technology and the deliberate policies of our establishment, the environment has become such that the narrative dominates everything, and it is impossible to deny it. At most, it can be said that performance and narrative are inseparable. PTI has been ruling in KPK since 2013. The province's conditions are bleak in all respects, but even in 2024, this narrative almost gave PTI a clean sweep.

Appointments and transfers to important positions in Punjab are being done on merit. But the question is whether this performance is restoring the old reputation of him or the Muslim League-N, then there is only one answer: "No". Muslim League-N is nowhere to be seen politically and organizationally. In Punjab, not only the members of the assembly but also the ministers are found to be shaking their necks.

Making Selfies by mixing with participants only during official events cannot be called public politics. If the party is not active, the officials at the local level also hide their faces from the people.

During the era of Q-League, Chaudhry Parvez Elahi not only gave time to not only the ministers, and members of the assembly, but also the general office-bearers and workers of the party, but also did their work on a priority basis. Even after all this, due to a lack of narrative, he had to join PTI to save his politics.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is apolitical by nature, but there was an impression about Maryam Nawaz that she would advance party politics along with being a crowd puller. Even a good performance without a lot of politics and narrative is like a bureaucrat giving a brilliant performance and retiring and disappearing from the scene.

Whatever Maryam Nawaz's thoughts regarding the narrative, certainly, one cannot participate in the game of political chess without taking the determined line of the narrative, keeping in mind the delicacy of the situation. Maryam Nawaz has said that narrative and performance are conflicting processes under some temporary political necessity, but if she thinks so, then it is her mistake.