Nawaz Sharif, despite his years of political acumen and experience, seems to be stuck in a rut; we keep hearing the same speech play out like a broken record and the same directionless protest ring out at his rallies. In the absence of any real strategy, it seems like the former Prime Minister has decided to barrel forward with belligerence.

All sense of optics and political sensitivity seem to have deserted the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) chief. On Friday, Nawaz Sharif held a rally in Lahore in front of a rowdy group of loyalist lawyers, urging them to reject the verdict of the Supreme Court and support him in against the “nexus of force and the court”.

This comes a few days after another group of lawyers clashed with police and tried to ransack the Lahore High Court (LHC) building over a perceived injustice by the court. While everyone from the public, the government, to the legal fraternity condemned this rejection of the rule of law and expected the government to take action against the perpetrators, Nawaz Sharif leads a similarly belligerent rally against the rule of law.

Was there no one in the PML-N to advise the former Prime Minister against this move? It doesn’t take a political wizard to see that leading a group of unruly lawyers at this point in time will invite countless comparisons with a universally derided action that took place just a few days ago.

This is notwithstanding the message itself – which is divisive and confrontational. The opposition is correct in pointing out that at a time when the legal fraternity needs to be reminded of its pledge to the pursuit of justice; Nawaz Sharif is further dividing it by asking a band of loyalists to pledge allegiance to him rather than the law.

Nawaz Sharif has been off-message since the ‘homecoming’ rally concluded – this is just pointless damage to himself.