PML-N, PPP focus on 2018 elections

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief former President Asif Ali Zardari have separately started focusing on their electorally weakest areas — Sindh and Punjab — respectively, gazing at the forthcoming grand electoral fight in 2018.

The outcomes of successive parliamentary polls are witness that the position of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Sindh has traditionally been pitiable. The party has also not been doing a serious, credible work to change its state of affairs.

For the last four years, the premier totally ignored Sindh to attempt carving out a place in this province in order to improve on his dismal performance and get something substantial in the next elections.

Whatever visits, which are not too many, he has paid to Sindh during this period were mostly confined to chairing and addressing official functions including the extensive sessions on law and order to rectify Karachi.

However, in the last year of his government, Nawaz Sharif has changed his mind about Sindh and resultantly the frequency of his trips to this province has shown a tremendous upsurge that will further intensify in the coming months in the run up to the upcoming polls. The obvious objective is to clinch a few seats there in 2018. He is selling his motorways, highways, metro buses, mega projects, curbing terrorism etc., to evoke public support, and announcing much more, involving billions of rupees.

In 2013, the PML-N had secured just one National Assembly seat of Abdul Hakeem Baloch, who quit it later and affiliated himself with the PPP. Besides, it had won five seats of the Sindh Assembly plus one special seat, which is a negligible number given the PPP’s impressive sweeping strength.

This is perhaps the first time in the past four years that the prime minister has addressed a workers’ convention in Hyderabad. Such gatherings were required since 2013, but no attention was paid to this factor.

Feeling comfortable in Punjab to perform better here, the premier is not much concerned about campaigning in this province right now when the elections are still a year away. He has so far left this job to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who is constantly on the move and in a hurry to shore up the PML-N’s electoral prospects. Humza Shahbaz is extending a helping hand to his father.

The main objective of appointing Mohammad Zubair as Sindh governor was to work politically to make the PML-N’s say better in this province. While giving him this mandate, he was asked to be discreet keeping in view his gubernatorial slot so that no major controversy is kicked off by his political adversaries.

While Nawaz Sharif has begun to steadily make an electoral niche in Sindh in his traditional low tone, Zardari is booming, banging and bombarding in Punjab with the resolve to snatch this province from the PML-N. His primary target is the prime minister and his government, and this is what he is selling in his drive to attract voters. He has announced to camp in Lahore till the 2018 polls to remain single-minded and has also now addressed a workers’ convention after a long time. He ostensibly realizes and rightly so that his standing in the majority province is extremely pathetic, and if he failed to salvage his sagging fortunes, he would be politically doomed.

The former president has no worry about Sindh where he strongly believes that the PPP would as usual stand out in its rural region, besting its rivals hands down. As a matter of fact, he faces no paramount challenge there, and all the forces that oppose him play second fiddle to the PPP hold. Being satisfied about Sindh, he has no plan to give much time to it and will utilize all of his energies and resources in Punjab.

Zardari’s fundamental priority is to pull out the PPP activists and workers out of abject demoralization and despondency in which they were pushed due to the unparalleled rout in 2013. However, with Zardari’s activation in politics, what his son, Bilawal, was doing to lift the party has become history. It is now clear that the young man will have no free hand, but would be just helping his father along with his sisters. Thus, the PPP’s campaign for the 2018 elections will be mainly run by Zardari, Bilawal, Bakhtiar and Asifa.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan are yet to figure on Zardari’s radar screen as he has not paid any visit to these provinces so far. In both the provinces, the PPP had no important say in the 2013 elections.

However, the prime minister’s approach towards KP and Balochistan is quite different from that of Zardari. He has frequently visited the two provinces in connection with mega projects. Because of its peculiar scenario, Balochistan has always been on his priority list.

The heated political temperature that is bound to further exasperate in the months to come has resulted in intensified trading of barbs and allegations between the PPP and PML-N. As the polls will draw close, these exchanges are likely to go to extremes.