Imran’s decision to call off Faisalabad rally sensible

Islamabad
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has taken a sensible decision to call off his public meeting, scheduled to be held in Faisalabad on Wednesday.
The devastation caused by Monday’s massive earthquake was correctly cited as the sole reason behind the cancellation.
Even otherwise the campaign for the first phase of October 31 local council elections in 12 districts of Punjab and eight districts of Sindh was lacklustre because of the highly localized nature of the process.
No major political party has held even a single public meeting in any big or small city to give a fillip to its canvassing. Only the PTI had planned two rallies, one in Faisalabad and the second in Lahore before the polling.
Imran Khan would have naturally earned intense public flak if he had gone ahead with holding the public meeting in Faisalabad. He realized the likely negative reaction and abandoned its rally.
However, without bothering about the devastating impact of the tremor, PTI Punjab organiser is engaged in his usual politics to win the local polls.
There has been no nation-wide campaigning for these elections. The canvassing has been confined to the contesting candidates although the political parties are participating in the exercise and have fielded their nominees.
The devastation brought by the earthquake has caused widespread gloom and despair and has also overshadowed the campaign for the local elections.
In Punjab, the PML-N and PTI are geared up for the main fight. In the interior Sindh districts where the polling will be held, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is not facing any huge challenge from any force.
In the first stage, polling will be held in the districts of Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Kasur, Okara, Vehari, Bahawalnagar, Chakwal, Pakpattan, Lodhran, Bhakkar and Nankana Saheb where the PML-N has traditionally won in successive general elections.
Polling will be held in the districts of Khairpur, Larkana, Ghotki, Sukkur, Kamber-Shahdad Kot, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Kashmore. The PPP will be doomed if it failed to come out with any impressive showing in the districts of the interior region of Sindh that had been its bastion of power.
While the PML-N claims hold over the Punjab districts, the PTI asserts that its prolonged protest and unrelenting taking on the Nawaz Sharif government has paid dividends and resulted in substantial inroads. The PPP stands nowhere in these districts and continues to be at the dismal bottom where it had landed in the 2013 parliamentary polls.
The Punjab districts also include Lodhran where senior PTI leader Jehangir Tareen claims popularity. He was exasperated when the by-election to NA-154 scheduled for October 11 was postponed because of the stay order granted to the disqualified PML-N nominee, Siddique Baloch, by the Supreme Court.
The Sindh districts where the polling will be organised in the first phase are those where the PPP has always performed exceedingly well. Now, it is a big question whether or not it will be able to maintain its old position when its fortunes have drastically waned elsewhere.
It faces no daunting challenge from the PML-N and PTI, which are staking huge claims in Punjab only. In the past too, they did not have any worthwhile say in these Sindh areas. They have never made any noteworthy, serious effort to create their footing in the interior Sindh. Their performance in the October 31 fight in these eight districts will be hardly striking.