With less than three weeks to polling for general elections, the traditional enthusiasm is nowhere to be seen, raising concerns about voters’ turn out, reliability of entire exercise and acceptance of outcome by major political parties. There is lack of due interest by almost all political parties despite firm assurances by top leadership and guarantees by the Supreme Court that elections would be held on due date of February 08.
People of Pakistan are not as keen about elections as they used to be in the past mainly because of inability of successive governments to resolve their day-to-day problems, improve their lot and move towards good governance. Ever-rising inflation has become the foremost concern of ordinary citizens, as situation has not changed for them despite change of three governments while major parties seem to be clueless what to do to ameliorate deteriorating socio-economic conditions of the masses. Ironically, manifestos of these parties do not offer much solace to the people as they are devoid of substance and have been prepared just to attract attention of voters. As all prospective parties are committing to continuation of existing policies including close engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), there seems to be no scope for provision of relief to inflation-ridden people and instead plans are afoot to revise upward electricity and gas tariffs. There is, therefore, a realisation among electorate that elections are unlikely to help improve their conditions, especially when they have seen performance and achievements of all these parties in the past.
There is no denying the fact that despite numerous hurdles, the PTI is still attracting attention of the people, especially the youth but this is not because of conviction of the people that the party has capability to tackle challenges facing the country but due to other factors like anti-establishment posture and well-organised propaganda on the social media. There are also genuine apprehensions among some circles that the party might continue with its previous policy of pushing the entire opposition to the wall if voted to power. In this backdrop, willingness of the party’s founding Chairman Imran Khan to talk with other political parties augurs well. Talking to journalists at Adiala jail, he insisted that a politician is “always ready to hold dialogue” yet emphasized that the PTI would prefer to join the opposition instead of forming a “weak government”.
As for PML (N), its previous governments fared comparatively well as far as governance is concerned but it is not sparking much confidence this time round because of what the coalition government did after the fall of PTI regime. People were expressing disappointment with the PTI government mainly because of unstoppable inflation and absence of developmental activities but its successor pushed the inflation to new heights and this has become a major cause of disenchantment of people with PML (N). There were expectations that PML (N) Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif, on his return to Pakistan, would help change this perception but so far he too has not been able to infuse a new spirit to voters. PPP is, no doubt, making pledges that matter for the people like provision of free electricity up to 300 units and doubling salaries over next five years but there are serious question marks as to how these commitments could be fulfilled in given situation. There are also serious doubts, whether or not the February 08 exercise would produce any clear winners because of a sharp divide in the society and obscure future vision. PML (N) is making preparations to assume power for obvious reasons but independents are likely to influence the process of government formation in a big way.
This is because, apart from a number of electables contesting elections as independents, candidates affiliated with the PTI are also contesting elections as independents as the party has no unified election symbol. In a country where politics are devoid of principles, there is absolutely no guarantee, which way elected independents would go. It is because of fluid nature of political game that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is openly claiming that independents would join his party and therefore, it would form next government. As of today, voter stands confused because of complex political scenario.
