It took less than three months for Pakistan People’s Party to bounce back from the disappointing results of May 11 elections. The by-election results show that the only two parties (PPP and ANP) gained some of the momentum back which they had lost in the most controversial general elections 2013. The so-called pundits of Pakistani politics and media have written off PPP from Punjab province. PPP won two more national assembly seats, one from Punjab (Rabbani Khar) and other from Sindh (Shazia Marri). It also won two provincial assembly seats from Punjab. No party can claim such gains in these by-elections. It seems as if these elections were held after six months, the results could have been much better for the PPP and ANP.
These are the two main parties which were not allowed to campaign in the May 11, 2013 elections by the terrorists and the authorities (son of former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was kidnapped during election campaign). It is so surprising to see headlines in the print media that the “N’s Lion roars again” when the seat vacated by Shahbaz Sharif and Zulfikar Khosa in Rajanpur and D G Khan were lost. Similarly PTI lost in Mianwali (Imran Khan’s home town) and Peshawar.
In 1997, PPP was pushed against the wall and was restricted to Sindh province. The heavy mandate given to the PML-N evaporated in 1999. It was the PPP which included PML-N in the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and in 2006 signed Charter of Democracy with the PML-N. Pakistanis are witness that the PML-N just after signing CoD, jumped on the bandwagon of All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM). Despite all odds and loss of its leader, PPP won majority seats in the national assembly in 2008 and formed a coalition government which completed its full term, first time in the history of Pakistani politics.
CAPT. (R) WASIF SYED,
Lahore, August 24.