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Thursday March 28, 2024

PTI behaves soberly by participating in by-elections

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has accepted a bold challenge thrown by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to contest the mega by-elections instead of hiding behind excuses and keeping himself out of the scramble.His decision unambiguously reflected that he was willing to work within the system. He

By Tariq Butt
August 30, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has accepted a bold challenge thrown by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to contest the mega by-elections instead of hiding behind excuses and keeping himself out of the scramble.
His decision unambiguously reflected that he was willing to work within the system. He argued his case against the members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) particularly the one from Punjab and repeated his allegations against them, which he has reiterated for countless times in the past, but refrained from boycotting the electoral exercise.
However, Imran Khan added minor “ifs and buts” to the PTI’s participation in the by-polls when he declared that it would take the next decision after staging a protest demonstration in front of the ECP offices on October 4.
For the moment, he did not condition his joining the process to the resignations of the ECP members, which he has been forcefully demanding.
The way the PML-N confidently threw down the gauntlet by choosing to go to the ‘people’s court’ instead of seeking reversal of the decisions of the election tribunals against its MPs left little or no option for Imran Khan but to accept the challenge. If it had stayed away from the grand electoral test for any reason, it would obviously have been harmful for the PTI.
The PML-N played a big gamble by going for fresh polls to the seats where its lawmakers have been ousted by the election tribunals. It will face a great test of its public standing. At the same time, the PTI too is confronted with proving its claims that it enjoys a massive public appeal, much more than any other political party.
The results of these elections will have a deep and far-reaching impact on the two parties. The game will be equally risky for both. These will not be ordinary polls by any standard.
The PTI chief decided not to personally contest the NA-122 seat Lahore that he had vied for in 2013 and had been defeated by Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. There was no need of his personal jump in the fray as he is already member of the National Assembly from NA-54 Rawalpindi. However, the competition would have become exceedingly exciting had he been in the race.
In his place, Imran Khan ia likely to field billionaire Abdul Aleem Khan, who was associated with the PTI in 2013 after spending a long time of his political career in the PML-Q.
However, senior PTI leader Jehangir Tareen will fight for NA-154 Lodhran that he had lost to Siddique Baloch, who, on his petition, was unseated by the Multan election tribunal on August 26. In a departure from his previous knee-jerk decisions, this time Imran Khan took a considerable while to deliberate upon whether or not to take part in the by-elections. Finally, he arrived at the correct political determination. Maybe, he had not forgotten the impact of the PTI’s boycott of the 2008 general elections that he always repented, shifting the blame on PML-N President Nawaz Sharif.
Whether or not Imran Khan presses his demand for their ouster on October 4, the ECP members will be helpless in such high-profile by-elections, which will be under focus of all and sundry. They will act impartially, justly and fairly as they did in the recent by-polls including NA-19 Haripur as well as the local council elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The PTI chief’s allegations apart, even otherwise the ECP members hardly have any role in manipulating any polls.
In 2013 Jehangir Tareen contested NA-154 Lodhran, where he has his land holding and business, for the first time and lost. Previously, he was twice elected from Rahimyar Khan in collaboration with politically powerful politician of the area Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood.
Ayaz Sadiq was consecutively elected thrice from NA-122 in the 2002, 2008 and 2013 general elections. In 2002 and 2013, he defeated Imran Khan.
In 2013, the PTI had asked real estate tycoon Aleem Khan to fight for NA-127 Lahore seat but he refused showing his interest in NA-125 and NA-126 constituencies. He had competed for NA-127 in the 2008 general elections on the PML-Q ticket but lost by bagging the third position with 13,707 votes as against 53,602 ballots of the winner, Nasir Bhutta of the PML-N, and 21,698 votes of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) nominee Dr. Muhammad Riaz.
In the 2002 general elections, Aleem Khan had also competed for NA-127 on the PML-Q ticket and was defeated by Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri, who had clinched 24,949 votes against his 20,545 ballots. Bhutta had stood third.
Aleem Khan had won only one election to a Punjab Assembly seat from Lahore in 2002 and was made minister in the Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi cabinet. Justice (R) Wajihuddin Ahmed leveled grave charges against him and three other PTI leaders in his findings about the intra-party elections of the PTI.
Shoaib Siddiqui, who had been put up by the PTI for Punjab Assembly seat, PP-147 Lahore, was defeated from this constituency by PML-N’s Mohsin Latif, who was also unseated by the Lahore election tribunal along with Ayaz Sadiq.