Need for perspective

A tense round of by-elections concluded on Sunday. The ruling PML-N savoured sweet – albeit neck and neck – victory for one of its darlings, Ayaz Sadiq, against the PTI’s Aleem Khan. The close vote, with Sadiq securing 76,024 votes against 72,043 votes secured by Khan, tells the story of an election in which the electoral machinery of the rival parties was used with full machismo. While the PML-N will be happy with its ability to hold on to the key seat in the mid-term by-polls, all is certainly not well for the party in its Punjab stronghold, having lost its provincial assembly seat to the PTI in the same constituency. Combined with losing to an independent candidate in the Okara area, all is certainly not as rosy in Punjab as the PML-N leadership would like to believe. The situation will become clearer as the local bodies elections are one step closer. The PTI, however, has not learned from its repeated tactic of crying foul whenever it loses. On Monday evening, PTI Lahore convenor Chaudhry Sarwar and losing candidate Aleem Khan took to the press to accuse the ‘government’ of rigging once again. The claim this time centered around changing voter lists at the last minute to take out pro-PTI voters from the constituency.There is no harm that the charge is investigated to prevent such happenings in future.
It was good to note that the election was held without any major incident marring the casting of votes, despite the heated atmosphere created by both parties in the lead up to the polls. While on the one side, the PML-N will be happy with its win, the questions over the party’s governance model and popularity in Punjab are still unresolved. In a saner world of politics, the PML-N leadership would sit down and examine why they lost seats in other constituencies. Sanity is not possible in the world of the PTI either, which has once again started the same old dharna-days mantra, despite the fact that the polls were held under the terms the party had set, including using the army as guarantor. What should happen now is for the PTI to understand it needs to use parliament as the space to voice disagreement and opposition. Sanity is also unlikely after a heated contest in which both parties over-involved themselves. A by-election should be a mediocre affair. The candidates are only vying for a two and a half year term at the helm of their respective assemblies. This reaffirms the need for perspective on the part of both the PTI and PML-N leadership. More than candidates, the poll had become a battle of egos and claiming or restoring respect and credibility. Much of the hot air of the PTI needs to disappear. The PML-N and PTI both suffered after selecting unpopular candidates: the PML-N for PP-147 and the PTI for NA-122. Imran Khan’s decision to choose a controversial candidate who could ‘spend money’, Aleem Khan, despite objections within the PTI has fallen flat. In this sense, the electorate has shown its power by rejecting top-down candidates. The PTI now needs to stop whining and prepare itself for the local bodies elections. However, the sheer amount spent on this election and use of the full party machinery by both the PML-N and the PTI does not bode well for the future of democracy in Pakistan. This confirms even more the need for stricter electoral reform. Importantly, there is also need to closely scrutinise the role and inefficiencies of the Election Commission, and to strengthen and reinforce it.