Pakistan: Who will become the Prime Minister, where is the cock tangled, how will the army, which has tasted the power, play its role now?

Nawaz Sharif's decision to withdraw from the PM race comes hours after PPP's candidate for PM Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced that he will no longer be putting himself forward as the candidate for the Prime Ministership of Pakistan. This decision of Nawaz Sharif may seem strange, but just a few days after the general elections in the country, those involved in the race for the post of PM have given up their will.

In a surprise move, the PML-N named Shehbaz Sharif as its prime ministerial candidate late last Tuesday, replacing 74-year-old Nawaz Sharif. It may be mentioned here that till 10 pm on Tuesday, no one in PML-N knew what party supremo Nawaz Sharif was thinking. On the television screen, his younger brother and former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was busy wooing the public with his usual juggling of words and assuring them that he would urge his elder brother to accept the post of Prime Minister of Pakistan for the fourth time.

Nawaz Sharif was watching his news conference live and, as a party spokesperson revealed, decided that his race for PM House should end there. He said, this was an immediate decision. He asked party spokesperson Maryam Aurangzeb to draft a tweet announcing that PML-N's prime ministerial candidate would be none other than Shehbaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz would become the Chief Minister of Punjab.

Nawaz is left with no option

For years the party and its leaders have been raising slogans of Wazir-e-Azam, Nawaz Sharif. While Shehbaz was prime minister and even during the election campaign, the party projected Nawaz Sharif as the next prime minister if the PML-N came to power. However, it seems that a clear majority and a last-minute alliance have left him with no other option but to nominate his brother and daughter and carve out a new role for himself.