Consecutive defeats: Is PML-N loosing grip on Punjab? Shafaqna Exclusive

by Tauqeer Abbas
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The PML(N) suffered a serious setback after its candidate in PP-38 lost elections to PTI with a big margin. Sialkot is the PML(N)’s stronghold where the party had won all the five national seats and nine out of 10 provincial seats in the 2018 elections. Whereas the opposition had won eight out of nine by-elections held in the past, things seem to be changing – with the Azad Kashmir election going by a huge margin to the PTI, which claimed 25 out of 45 seats, and the by-poll in Sialkot lost by the PML-N which had previously held the seat by 7000 votes, whereas it had won it by 17,000 votes in 2018.

Is it then that the PTI is gaining a stronger hold over the hearts and minds of people? Are its policies working despite high inflation and the other problems which continue to plague the country? Or is it as seems more likely that the opposition has played its cards extremely badly, perhaps especially in the case of the PML-N. The fact that there is a clear divide within the party with Shahbaz Sharif taking a different line to that of Maryam Nawaz does not help matters within the party. It also sends out a mixed message to PML-N voters.

The only thing is that anybody who even casually observed the Sialkot by-election, and events that led to it, understands very well that it was the personal interest and maneuvering of Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhary Pervez Elahi, who spearheads the PML-Q contingent of the ruling alliance in Punjab, that made this victory possible. Even the winning candidate, Chaudhary Ahsan Saleem Baryar, was transferred, so to speak, to PTI from PML-Q, so while the flurry of celebratory statements and tweets from the ruling party are understandable, perhaps it wouldn’t be a good idea to get too complacent based on this and the AJK election victory just yet.

So, is the PML-N finally losing its grip over Punjab, the province that calls its home and the province which sends the largest number of representatives to the National Assembly? This is a time when the PML-N should be questioning its own tactics and its own sense of direction. After the AJK polls and the acrimony seen there between the leaders of the PTI, the PML-N and the PPP, we should also be concerned about the political scenario in the country as a whole.

The PTI’s recent electoral victories are a reminder that the fundamentals of the political chessboard that was set in the 2018 elections remains in place to a fairly large extent. This presents a unique challenge to the PTI’s rivals. They have to figure out a workable strategy to dent the PTI’s political standing before the general elections are upon them. So far there are little indications that the opposition has anything new up its sleeve.

Shafaqna Pakistan

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