KARACHI, Feb 15: The Sindh chapter of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) appears to have failed to capitalise on the return after a long exile of its leader, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and under the given circumstances it appears unlikely that many of the party’s candidates in Karachi will return successful on Feb 18.
Despite the fact that the polls are a mere two days away, no significant PML-N election campaign is visible in any of the city’s constituencies from where its candidates are contesting. And while the party’s election symbol, the lion, can be seen on some giant billboards, Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, the president of the party, don’t appear in any mood to join the otherwise dull election campaign of their party’s candidates in Karachi. Their foremost priority appears to be the strengthening of the party’s traditional vote bank in the Punjab.
The PML-N leaders’ view is borne out by other stalwarts of the Punjab-based party who believe that there is little to be gained from running a concerted election campaign in Sindh, and particularly in Karachi, since the party is not in a position to win. They have therefore advised Nawaz Sharif to refrain from wasting his time in visiting the southern province and concentrate instead on running a forceful campaign in the Punjab and the NWFP, particularly in the Hazara division.
Despite this situation, a Karachi-based central leader of the party expressed the hope of putting up a tough fight over three National Assembly and six provincial assembly constituencies as long as the Jamaat-i-Islami vote bank chose to back PML-N candidates.
Poor organisational structure
In the 2002 general elections, the party fielded 15 candidates for the city’s 20 National Assembly seats but failed to win any and secured a total of 42,056 votes across the city.
For the upcoming polls, the PML-N is contesting 10 National Assembly seats of the available 20, and has put up candidates for 25 provincial assembly seats out of a total of 42.
Its chances are hampered by the fact that the Sindh chapter of the party has for some time been run on an ad hoc basis. The provincial president Ghous Ali Shah spent many years in London and the party’s affairs were looked after by Salim Zia in the role of acting president.
Moreover, the party’s organisational structure has been harmed by internal conflict. When Nawaz Sharif visited the metropolis for the first time after returning to the country late last year, he took a round of only one provincial assembly constituency from where the PML-N’s Sardar Rahim is contesting the elections. All other constituencies were neglected.
“We have not had a proper organisational structure here for the past five years,” PML-N central leader Nihal Hashmi told Dawn. “If we had a proper [organisational] set-up in place, the election results would have been entirely different.” Despite this shortcoming, however, Mr Hashmi was confident that his party would put up a tough fight in NA-239, NA-241 and NA-251, from where Syed Hafeezuddin, Wazirzada Afridi and Mushahidullah Khan are respectively contesting the Feb 18 elections. “Nawaz Sharif has become a symbol of change and people will come to the polling stations in large numbers to cast their votes in favour of our party’s candidates,” he observed.
Hope springs eternal
According to Mr Hashmi, despite the overall lack of organisational structure he referred to earlier, in these three constituencies the party structure is strong enough to offer hope and the party also enjoys support in areas dominated by Punjabis, Pukhtoons and other communities. “In addition to our own vote bank, our candidates will draw votes from the supporters of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Pakistan (JUP) and the Jamaat-i-Islami,” he said, adding that no one would vote for the JUI candidates who are contesting from the platform of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).
The PML-N leader’s confidence over these three constituencies appears somewhat misplaced given that in the 2002 elections, its candidates did not draw a significant number of votes. Mian Ejaz Shafi of the party secured 3,871 votes in NA-239, Mr Afridi, who is running for the same seat again, got 2,470 votes in NA-241 while Mr Khan, who is also contesting for the same seat as previously, scored the highest number of votes amongst the PML-N candidates, 8,615 in NA-251.
Mr Hashmi told Dawn that his party’s position in five provincial assembly constituencies – PS-108, PS-109, PS-113, PS-114 and PS-119 – is favourable as compared to the other political parties and it was probable that the PML-N could win these seats. Malik Mohamed Riaz, Sultan Bahadur Khan, Salim Zia, Sardar Abdul Rahim and Ali Akbar Gujjar are respectively contesting from these constituencies.
On PS-113, the party has already entered into a seat adjustment agreement with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as a result of which the latter has withdrawn its candidate in favour of Mr Zia. In return, Mr Zia announced his retirement from the contest over NA-250 in favour of the PPP’s Mirza Ikhtiar Baig.
In the 2002 general elections, PML-N candidate Aslam Khan Niazi secured 1,233 votes in PS-108, Faisal Jamal got 2,382 votes in PS-109, Salim Zia bagged 4,093 votes in PS-113 while Sardar Rahim picked up 6,123 votes in PS-114 and Ali Akbar Gujjar drew 6,304 votes from PS-119.
However, it is widely believed that the PML-N fielded candidates from Sindh and Karachi merely in order to improve is position on the national scene in terms of the total number of votes secured, regardless of whether it wins or loses the elections.
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