This is apropos a Business Recorder news item "Sharif brothers want Maryam to abandon hard line" carried by the newspaper yesterday. According to it, "The Sharif brothers - Nawaz and Shehbaz - are finally on the same page are said to be of the view that PML-N must abandon the aggressive hard line taken by Maryam Nawaz that cost the party seats in the recently held Azad Jammu and Kashmir general elections and the by-election in Sialkot."

But Maryam, in my view, has not been pursuing any hard line against the country's establishment. In other words, she has not shown any adherence to a policy that could be perceived or described as an effective or real strategy aimed at removing the incumbent government. All we have from her is empty rhetoric, which does not necessarily mean a hard line. Insofar as Shehbaz Sharif is concerned, he's advocating a conciliatory or flexible course of action. Their politics is clearly based on practical rather than ideological considerations.

Saleem Murad (Karachi)

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