Islamabad - As the candidates of the main political parties continue to do their utmost to win their respective constituencies in the July 25 general elections, for some it seems to be nothing more than a publicity stunt.

73 candidates are vying for three National Assembly seats in Islamabad. According to the ECP, 11 candidates are vying for NA-52 (Islamabad-I) constituency, 34 for NA-53 (Islamabad-II) seat while 28 candidates are contesting for NA-54 (Islamabad-III) seat. On average, 24 candidates are trying their luck on a single Islamabad seat. Out of 72, 36 are independent candidates. 4 independent candidates are contesting for NA-52, 18 for NA-53 and 14 for NA-54 constituency, according to the ECP records.

There are several contestants, but only a few real contenders for the three Islamabad National Assembly seats. A survey of the city predicts a close-run between PTI and PML-N candidates while PPP and JI’s candidates are also making serious efforts. The ticket-holders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Pakistan People’s Party and Jamaat-i-Islami are very serious about their ultimate destination. They have started their election campaign vigorously and are busy in winning the hearts and minds of the voters by holding corner meetings and addressing public rallies. But majority of the other candidates, of which a large number are from smaller political parties or are independent, are contesting the election just to lose it. While talking to The Nation several such candidates expressed that they are not sure about their success or in other words they were sure about their defeat yet they decided to participate in the elections anyways. For them, the purpose of their participation in the election is nothing but a publicity stunt. The ECP charges a National Assembly seat aspirant Rs 30,000 and a provincial assembly candidate Rs 20,000. Security fee will be held in case a candidate obtains less than one-fourth of the polled votes. For publicity-seekers, it’s not bad to get recognition in their respective areas against a nominal sum, The Nation has observed. They would be seen a lot in public during the election campaign through posters, banners and pamphlets.

An independent candidate from NA-54, Hafeezur Rehman Tipu when contacted, said that he was too busy to talk to media. “I have just reached a meeting and so I’m unable to answer your questions at the moment,” he said while apologizing. Haroon Arshad, another independent candidate from Islamabad seemed not willing to talk to this scribe. He was of the view that his election campaign would ‘suffer a lot’ if he started talking to media at this critical time. When asked about the prospects of his success in the elections, he said that he was working towards his goal.  

When approached, an official at the ECP agreed that for some, election is nothing more than a publicity stunt. “Some of them would mention themselves as ‘Ex-candidate for NA-…’ in their post elections visiting cards,” he commented on condition of anonymity. He also lamented over the trend that a long list of candidates in a particular constituency would surely confuse the voters on the polling day. “They would face difficulty in locating the name and symbol of their favourite candidate,” he commented.  However, Ammar Rasheed, an Awami Workers Party candidate from NA-53, Islamabad did not agree with the notion that election is a publicity stunt for a candidate. “We are in the field to challenge the status quo. We find it (election) an opportunity to introduce an alternate way of politics,” he told The Nation. He was of the view that there is a very limited space for ‘resisting politics’ in the country as trade unions and representative organizations are not being patronized. “During the election campaign, one has an ample opportunity to reach out to the masses and the message for the voters is that there is an alternate platform for politics,” he explained.  

Another independent candidate from NA-54, Anwar-ul-Haq, when asked what prompted him to participate in the elections, promised to get back with the answer after few hours but he didn’t. The interaction with the independent candidates suggests that they are not willing to talk to media even on public issues or about their seriousness in resolving public issues and their success in the elections.

The situation is not very different in other constituencies of the NA and the provincial assemblies in the country when it comes to the number of contesting candidates in a particular constituency. According to the ECP, 3,675 contestants are in the electoral arena for 272 National Assembly seats, whereas 8,895 are vying for the four provincial legislatures collectively. On average, 13 candidates are vying for a single national assembly constituency and 15 candidates are vying for a provincial assembly seat.   Former secretary ECP, Kanwar Dilshad said that it is the constitutional right of every eligible candidate to contest the elections. However, he was of the view that participation of a large number of candidates from a constituency creates problems for the ECP and also confuses the voters. On the question of publicity stunt, the ECP secretary said the heads and office-bearers of the dummy political parties would later form pressure groups and blackmail the state officials in their respective constituencies. They would influence the police stations of their respective areas and would be labelled as public representatives under the garb of participation in the elections to get favours from government offices. In some cases, they would extort money from businessmen in the name of party funds, he added.  For some, election seems to be a publicity stunt, but even serious candidates are also resorting to various stunts to engage with the masses and win their votes. The most popular of the stunts has turned out to be a motorcycle ride. Selfies with the voters, sitting at roadside hotels and doing ordinary jobs are some of the popular means of getting closer to the voters, according to the survey. However, we are yet to find out whether political publicity stunts will ultimately influence the public opinion in the run-up to the elections or not.