PML-N maintains its lead over rivals

ISLAMABAD: Rhetoric apart, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) maintained its electoral superiority over all its political rivals in the elections for the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) and the by-poll for a National Assembly constituency of Mandi Bahauddin.
Although the results did not match the usual high-sounding talk of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) at a sonorous pitch, the party did make a debut in the electoral politics of GB and is taking solace in the fact that it has won a couple of seats in this area. It can claim that what it got in GB was the result of its sit-in politics, which took it to new heights of popularity.
No allegations relating to the polling day process in GB emerged from any contesting party simply because the Pakistan Army supervised the exercise mainly on the demand of the PTI and the requisition of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the civil administration.
The GB elections were as fair, free and transparent as the 2013 parliamentary polls in Pakistan were. The GB elections did not happily trigger any undesirable controversy while the politics on the recent local polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is poised to create unhealthy destabilisation in the province it can’t afford.
An All Parties’ Conference (APC) convened by KP Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak to ponder over the demands and massive accusations of rigging leveled by the opposition parties against his government proved to be a total failure as none except his coalition partners attended it.
The three-party opposition alliance comprising Awami National Party (ANP), PPP and Jamiat Ulemae Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) is administering the same medicine to the PTI that Imran Khan’s party used, protesting against the 2013 elections.
The PTI chief made every effort to make the 2013 polls controversial, and the same is being done by the opposition parties regarding the KP local polls. They are not prepared to agree to anything less than the resignation of the provincial government. Their main argument is that while Imran Khan kept demanding resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for poll rigging despite the fact that the PML-N had not supervised the 2013 exercise, the PTI government should step down because it rigged the polls, accepting the responsibility of fraud.
A KP minister made similar pleas to the opposition parties to postpone its June 10 protest call that a number of politicians used to make to the PTI about its sit-in. He received the same reply that the PTI used to give.
The PML-N is far ahead of all others in the GB elections, scoring the simple majority, which has enabled it to have its nominee as the chief minister without the help of any parliamentary group.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which ruled GB for five years after winning the 2009 elections, was eliminated. Even its former chief minister lost. It persisted with the electoral disaster it is facing since 2013.
The PPP’s election campaign in GB was totally lackluster and none of its prominent leaders ever visited the area for canvassing. On the other hand, Imran Khan himself campaigned for days by holding election rallies.
In the Mandi Bahauddin by-poll, the PML-N also performed well. It had lost the seat in 2013 to an independent (Ijaz Chaudhry), who later joined it. Subsequently, he switched to the PTI. His disqualification by the election tribunal, upheld by the Supreme Court, led to the by-election.
Respected Mumtaz Tarar belonging to the PML-N secured 77,884 votes and won hands down. His nearest rival was PTI’s Tariq Tarar, who bagged 40,570 ballots. The PPP nominee’s performance was absolutely the same as it was in 2013. The Jamaat-e-Islami significantly went down as its representative got 7,662 votes compared to its candidate’s 18,270 ballots in 2013.
While the PML-N is rightly thrilled over the victory, the PTI can console itself with the fact that its nominee bagged more votes than 2013. This time, its representative got 40,570 votes compared to 25,406 ballots in 2013.