ISLAMABAD – After Military now Sharif brothers have started the old game ofgood cop and bad cop with the judiciary too.

Although party members are raising voice against such move with thejudiciary however Shahbaz and Khaqan Abassi took Nawaz Sharif onboardbefore meeting CJP.

Party sources considered close to Nawaz Sharif claim that Shehbaz, with hisnarrative of unity among the state institutions, is actually damaging thestance of “our party” and also undermining the position taken by his elderbrother.

The sources say that Shehbaz is under “some delusion” that if he becameprime minister, he will be able to “handle matters smoothly”. The sources,one of them a sitting minister, say that Shehbaz would soon realise that heis at fault.

If there was a way of co-existence with state institutions, Nawaz wouldhave found it because he had been prime minister thrice.

Speaking about Sharif’s tirade against the establishment, the sourcesexplained that Sharif’s narrative was not about demeaning any stateinstitution but about respect for parliament and the sanctity of votes.

According to the sources, back-to-back statements by Shehbaz, the chiefminister of Punjab, about harmony among the state situations are seen as adirect contradiction to Sharif’s statements.

One of the sources said that Shehbaz would soon realise that he was atfault with his narrative and that he might soon stand in the same line asNawaz, demanding supremacy of the democracy. “Shehbaz and his camp areafflicting a great deal of damage to the party’s policy line,” he said.

Since his disqualification by the Supreme Court on July 28 last year, Nawazand his daughter Maryam Nawaz, along with a number of ministers, continuewith their tirade against the state institutions, criticising them forundermining and humiliating the democratic system of the country.

But in contrast, Shehbaz has avoided criticism of the establishment or thejudiciary. And most of those in his camp also tow the same line.

Shehbaz also abstained from criticising state institutions when hisblue-eyed bureaucrat was arrested by the National Accountability Court(NAB) on charges of corruption. Even so, when the Punjab governmentofficially criticised NAB, the chief minister spoke about respecting theauthority and mandate of the institutions.

A spokesman for the Punjab government told The Express Tribune that theydid not believe in criticism of state institutions. “We do not believe incriticising our institutions, these state institutions are ourinstitutions,” Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan said.

“We do not deny the existence of several flaws within our system,” thePunjab government spokesman said, adding that because of these problems nopolitical government could ever have the smooth sailing.

“The solution to that problem is not to criticise the state institutions,”Khan stressed. “We should all sit together and devise and revise the rulesof business, the rules to ensure co-existence,” he added.

“We in Punjab share the same opinion as in Islamabad, that Nawaz’sdisqualification was unjust and unfair. But confronting the stateinstitutions is not the way forward.”