City’s apathy persists amid top parties leadership contests

LAHORE : Despite the top leadership of three political parties is contesting elections in the provincial metropolis, the City has not so far been able to attain its traditional zeal and colour that have been witnessed for decades before any election.

The stage is set for the February 8, 2024 elections and in the second largest city of Pakistan polling will take place on 14 National Assembly and 30 Provincial Assembly seats, with main contest between PMLN, PPP, PTI-backed independents and religious parties.

Around 266 candidates are contesting for 14 seats of the National Assembly in Lahore in the forthcoming general elections scheduled to be held on February 8, 2024 while for 30 seats of the Punjab assembly, 833 candidates are in the run.

The senior leadership of mainstream or even religio-political parties are in contest from Lahore that included PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif, PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, President Istehkam Pakistan Party (IPP) Abdul Aleem Khan, PMLN senior leader and former Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shehbaz, Chief Organiser PMLN Maryam Nawaz, Talha Saeed, Pakistan Markazi Muslim League candidate and son of Jamatud Dawa Emir Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, former Governor Punjab Sardar Latif Khosa, former Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, former Federal Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, former Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and many others.

Amongst the religio-political parties, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan seemed at the top by fielding candidates from all seats of Lahore and expected to show a good and even an increased vote bank as compared to the last general election held in 2018.

In 2018, on most of the seats of Lahore, TLP candidates bagged more than 10,000 votes and it also caused a split in the traditional vote bank of PMLN which lost 7 Provincial Assembly and four National Assembly seats from Lahore then.

Similarly, Jamaat-i-Islami also fielded candidates on several seats of Lahore and was campaigning but on limited scale. The JI also adopted modern ways of canvassing as use of random telephone calls to the voters in their leader’s voice, use of road floats and social media.

The most discussed seats in Lahore at the moment are NA-127 from where Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is contesting against PMLN's Atta Tarar and PTI-backed Malik Zaheer Khokhar, NA-130 where former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is contesting against the imprisoned Dr Yasmin Rashid, NA-119 where Maryam Nawaz is contesting against PTI-backed Mian Shahzad Farooq and the two seats where IPP President Abdul Aleem Khan is contesting. Maryam Nawaz was the sixth member of Sharif family who is making her electoral debut from Lahore and contesting on two seats.

For the first time in decades, the election campaign has not been very noisy or enthusiastic for multiple reasons. PTI, the party which won 4 National Assembly seats and 7 Provincial Assembly seats from Lahore, the PMLN base-camp in 2018 and won four by polls between 2018 to 2022 from the same city has been confined to social media.

Police raids on its rallies and absence of its leadership from the election campaign has made the 2024 contest very sordid. The party offices, rallies, corner meetings, music, tea parties etc are totally missing on PTI part this time.

Moreover, PPP, another mainstream political party whose birth took place in Lahore and which ruled for two decades here also seemed in a miserable state as in most of the constituencies, it has not been able to find candidates and all eyes are focused on one seat that is NA-127 where Bilawal Bhutto was facing PMLN’s Atta Tarar.

Only PMLN and TLP seem active campaigners of election and the offices of these two parties are seen on different parts of Lahore. Most of the rallies and corner meetings are related to these two. Besides, the PPP has also leveled allegations of horse-trading against PMLN in NA-127 and demanded Election Commission to take notice of it while PMLN’s Atta Tarar also leveled the same allegations on the PPP and also claimed he caught some persons from a PPP office where they were buying votes from the citizens and taking oaths on religious books.

The presence of a good number of the minority votes in NA-127 is seemed to be the main target of both the PPP and PMLN candidates as majority of these voters are living below poverty line and can be attracted to a ‘handsome election package’.

Tahir-ul-Qadri factor is also very important in this constituency because of his educational institutions where hundreds of thousands of students were studying and also living in hostels and many hundreds have their votes registered in this constituency. It seemed that PPP may have the support of Tahirul Qadri in the upcoming elections because PMLN candidate has so far not met any leader of Minhaj-ul-Quran.

Political pundits termed that the win of Bilawal Bhutto in this election will become a doorway for the PPP to enter Punjab but in case he lost, he will get a lifetime label of having a defeat in Lahore from a PMLN’s young leader who is much lower than the Bilawal’s stature.

Aun Chaudhry, another IPP figure supported by PMLN is contesting from NA-128 where he is facing renowned lawyer Salman Akram Raja who is backed by the PTI. The contest in this constituency is also very tough but Salman Akram Raja has a slight edge over Aun Chaudhry because the constituency was won by PTI’s Shafqat Mehmood twice.

In NA-118, the former Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shehbaz Sharif is contesting against an imprisoned PTI-backed candidate, Alya Hamza.

In NA-122, PMLN’s Khawaja Saad Rafiq was facing PTI’s Latif Khosa and an independent candidate Azhar Siddique. The contest will be very interesting. However, the PTI voters of this constituency are confused as both the independent candidates were supporters as well as lawyers of Imran Khan.

Former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is contesting from NA-123 where he is facing Jamaat-e-Islami’s Liaquat Baloch, PPP’s Muhammad Ziaul Haq and an independent candidate Afzal Azim. The majority of this constituency comprised over rural areas where religious votes are one of the keys to win the elections.

In NA-130, PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif is facing PTI’s Dr Yasmin Rashid, who is contesting from the jail. Nawaz Sharif has a clear edge over PTI’s candidate because she is not on the roads.

In 2018, Yasmin Rashid stood second to PMLN’s Waheed Alam Khan and managed to secure 105,857 votes against PMLN’s Waheed Alam Khan, who got 122,327 votes.

The present situation of Lahore is in stark contrast with past as even in 2008 while the country was hit by the worst wave of terrorism in form of suicide attacks, the election campaign in Lahore showed its true colours and political workers seemed active in election campaign.

The PTI leadership has been complaining about the absence of a level playing field for its candidates and alleges that they have been made the worst victim of state sponsored victimisation.