Baghi is gone.
No, Daghi is gone where he belonged to.
Javed Hashmi is in the news again.
This party hopper politician met former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who he addressed 'my leader' when he himself was a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA, in Islamabad last week. Nothing concrete came out of the meeting, except for Maryam Nawaz’s excited comment: ‘Welcome back to your own home’.
Will the PML-N be his home again?
Will he feel at home in his old party after a gap of five or six years when ditched it for the PTI?
Will the PML-N feel at home with the outspoken leader?
Will the local leadership of Multan, who feel outshined and cornered in his presence, will be comfortable with his presence in the party?
Several questions, but to get as many answers one will have to wait until the dust settles down.
Prior to his meeting with Nawaz Sharif, Javed Hashmi had desperately been trying to remain in news through his marathon press conferences during the Panama case storm.
Every evening, he would call a press conference where he would often take anti-judiciary, anti-establishment, anti-Imran Khan and anti-political victimisation stances.
One could easily read between the lines that the elder politician was supporting the beleaguered Sharif family. The Raiwind palace, however, never showed enthusiasm on the persistence support by one of their former old guards until Nawaz Sharif was disqualified and put on trial in several NAB cases.
Despite cold shoulders by the PML-N, why Javed Hashmi is looking toward his old party?
Some analysts believe that since the days of Gen Musharraf when Javed Hashmi led the party on anti-establishment lines from 2000 to 2007, he became a staunch crusader of democracy and anti-establishment stances. They believe that for these reasons, first, he fell out with the PML-N in 2011 when the party was in full contacts with Gen Kiani and Gen Pasha.
He left the PTI when he saw the party had become a B team of the establishment during its sit-in stunt in 2014 and now he sees Nawaz Sharif the only politician with anti-establishment voice, so he sees PML-N his own voice.
There could be some other reasons too behind the reunion of Javed Hashmi and the Sharif family. Javed Hashmi was a misfit in the PTI and he is also misfit in the PML-N. But it is the bloody constituency-based politics which has driven both Javed Hashmi and the PML-N to embrace each other. Javed Hashmi is looking for a safe constituency for the 2018 elections whereas the PML-N is looking for a reasonable candidate for NA-149 where from Javed Hashmi has returned a couple of times. In the absence of Javed Hashmi, the PML-N has weak choices to face PTI’s formidable candidate called Amir Dogar.
But Javed Hashmi has reached the age of superannuation and he should call it a day from politics. In fact, he should have said goodbye to politics in 2012-2013. But there is no concept of retiring from politics in Pakistan.
The better choice for the elder Hashmi is to spare no effort to launch a movement for the Seraiki province.
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