Few can match the skills of Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her Pakistan People´s Party when it comes to creating intimidating opponents and rivals out of whatever is available.
In the 1980s, this tendency helped Mian Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and present opposition leader, in his ascent from being a local Lahore figure with few credentials other than a dislike for the Bhuttos, to the national political scene. Sharif remained a major target of the PPP workers throughout the latter half of the decade. The democratic period after the death of military dictator Gen Zia-ul Haq has seen no let-up in this campaign by the Bhutto faithful, although now they have met their match in workers of Sharifs own Pakistan Muslim League (PML).
Politics in the country remains divided along pro-PPP and anti-PPP lines, and failure to enter the PPP is no cause of grief for political aspirants. All they have to do is oppose it, and the stronger the opposition, the brighter his or her chances to go higher.
When Nawaz Sharif qualified for a seat in both the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly from Lahore in the non-party elections of 1985, his success was largely due to the big push he received from voters who had traditionally backed the right wing Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).