LAHORE: As many as 1,000 people in 18 districts across the country said all of them would vote in the general elections even though only 20 per cent of them had voted previously.

The District Democracy Forums held under the Strengthening Youth Organisations in Pakistan for Democracy (SYOPD) received the responses from May 3 to May 9.

The forums were one of the interventions planned under the SYOPD project, funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund.

“The project hopes to enhance the understanding of democracy and governance issues while addressing the capacity building needs of organisations working in the social development sector,” said Muhammad Shahzad Khan, the Executive Director of Chanan Development Association, the organisation responsible for implementing the project.

CDA, a youth-led organisation, will work to engage as many as 150 social development organisations dealing with youth, women and minorities under the project.

“The idea is to promote a better understanding of democratic processes especially as the country is witnessing a transfer of power from one elected government to another,” said Khan.

The project follows a three-pronged intervention strategy comprising field research about peoples’ understanding of democracy and governance, promoting advocacy and building capacity at voluntary organisations to hold governments accountable at local and district levels.

In May, the project engaged with 85 candidates from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Jamaat-e-Islami.

The forums gave the participants a chance to interact with the leaders. As many as 90 per cent said they found them useful. The forums could not be organised in Karachi and Quetta because of security reasons.

To Khan’s surprise, the Lahore district forum received a low turnout. “It is usually believed that the residents of urban areas are more open and forthcoming towards such issues…our experience was different,” he said.

Khan said he had not expected an ‘overwhelming’ response in Jafarabad and Dadu districts.

“It was amazing to witness the degree of participation there,” he added.

The project will only take on board individuals falling in the 18 to 29 age bracket. “We have come a long way in trying to convince ourselves of the potential of the youth,” Khan said.

“It is time the youth are taken seriously and allowed to engage in the affairs of the state,” he said.

The project started in May and will go on till April 2015 in 25 districts. It will focus on eight districts in the Punjab, four in Balochistan and Sindh each, five in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two each in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The project will incur a cost of almost $225,000 and will target around 25,000 beneficiaries over two years.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.

LAHORE: After almost 2 years in office, Dr Adil Najam announced his decision to step down as the vice chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences in an official email sent to the LUMS community.

The unexpected decision was made public through an update on the university’s official website on Thursday. The website also carries brief details of the decision along with the content of the mail. Dr Najam will be stepping down from his designation at the end of the academic year, on June 30 this year.

Dr Najam explained that it was ‘time to move on’.

Thank you, #LUMS. Its time to move on. bit.ly/18NHyyW

— Adil Najam (@AdilNajam) May 16, 2013

Having joined as vice chancellor in 2011, he said he missed the ability to give more time to teaching and research – both of which he defines as his first love. The email also mentioned his desire to dedicate more time to his family.

Describing it as ‘not an easy decision to make’, the 500 word long emotional mail thanked the LUMS community for their support and encouragement. He went on to add that the experience was one of the most ‘rewarding and meaningful’ for him.

Under Dr Najam the university has announced the establishment of the fourth school, School of Law in addition to the three schools at LUMS, that of business, humanities and social sciences and sciences and engineering.

Despite his resignation, he will lead the LUMS 2013 convocation, scheduled for June 22, as the university’s vice chancellor.

Pro-chancellor of LUMS Syed Babar Ali has commended the efforts by Dr Najam during his tenure at LUMS.

Teachers made up a large proportion of the government employees who manned polling stations and helped conduct the voting process on election day. The protest on Thursday, organised by the Punjab Teachers Union (PTU), was a response to allegations of rigging made by politicians and their supporters.

The teachers were particularly enraged at comments made by Abrarul Haq, a pop star who ran in the elections on a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) ticket, in a television talk show. He was reported to have criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan for handing polling duties to teachers, who he said were “an easy target to exploit through money”.

The protestors, echoing demands made in statements by the PTU, sought an apology from Haq. They held a sit-in at Faisal Chowk for around two hours, waving placards and chanting slogans, sometimes abusive, against Haq.

PTU General Secretary Rana Liaquat Ali said that the allegations against teachers who performed polling duties on May 11 were outrageous. “All the votes were genuine,” he said.

He said that no teachers had reported incidents of unfair means being employed at any polling station in the Punjab. He criticised the PTI for blaming the polling staff for the outcome of the elections. “If people did not vote for them, that does not mean that the polling was unfair,” he said.

The protestors outside the Punjab Assembly demanded that evidence be brought forward to back up claims of rigging. “It is easy to trace the polling staff on duty at each polling station,” said Ali. “If there has been any rigging, bring forth the evidence and let the proceedings begin. Until then, people and political leaders, especially of the PTI, should refrain from making any such claims.”

He said that Haq should make an unconditional apology, or the union would hold a protest outside his office. The PTU will consider further protests after three days, he added.

Problems on polling day

The PTU is currently compiling a report of complaints from teachers who had served as polling officials. The report, which is to be finished before the end of the week and sent to the ECP, will list problems such as transportation, allowance issues and assigning of multiple duties. Ali said that teachers were not given proper transport or a travelling allowance, especially those assigned duties in “far-flung” areas.

ECP Punjab Deputy Director Abdul Waheed said that the issue of some officials being assigned multiple duties had been addressed before the elections. He said that any complaints of rigging were being dealt with at the ECP office in Islamabad.

Regarding transport, he said the district coordination officers had been responsible for arranging transport for polling staff. The ECP had paid the DCOs for arranging transport and making logistic plans.

The Lahore DCO’s office denied any trouble with transport. Imran Maqbool, the public relations officer to the DCO, said that transport was provided to all polling staff as per their logistic plan. He said that any concern regarding transport should have been brought up before the elections.

The PTU represents almost 330,000 teachers in the province. Teachers assigned duties as presiding and assistant presiding officer were paid Rs1,300 while polling officers were paid Rs900 for their services on election day, the union said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2013.

Mahmooda Ahmad Bashir, 80, waited almost three hours to cast her vote at the FC College polling station. A police car offered her a ride from the polling station to the exit. “Thank you son,” she said to the policeman who helped her out of the car at the gate.

Exhausted but elated after casting her vote, she sipped from a bottle of water. Who did she vote for? “The Bat of course!” she said and flashed a victory sign. She asked each beta who passed by to “vote for change”.

“I have come out today because I am all for change in this country,” she said. “We need this nation to move forward. We’ve had enough corruption.”

Mahmooda is mother of actor Bushra Ansari and was accompanied by another daughter, Neelam Ahmad Bashir. Though they both have the same permanent address in Gulberg III, Neelam’s vote was registered in Sahiwal. “As many as seven members of my family were unable to vote because their votes had been registered in Sahiwal though their permanent address is the same as mine,” she said.

Naeema Khanum, 68, has been partially paralysed since she was young. She trudged to the polling station at Union Council 82 in Santnagar, NA-120, using a walker. “She was determined to come and vote despite her difficulty. It inspired the whole family to vote,” said Abdullah Naeem, her nephew.

Khanum, who is single and lives with her brothers and their families, prayed for the country as she stood in the queue. “It is everyone’s responsibility to vote and bring honest people to power,” she said.

It wasn’t just the young people who were voting for the first time on Saturday. Nasira Bibi, 75, lost her temper at the presiding officer at Musarrat Government Girls High School Babu Sabu on Bund Road, when she asked her to fold her ballot paper “properly”.

“How should I know how to fold it properly? I am voting for the first time,” she said. “The staff aren’t treating voters properly.”

Tanzila Umer and Shama Haq, both in their 50s, have voted in several previous elections, but both agreed that they had never seen such a high turnout. “It took me three hours but it was worth the wait. It was a wonderful experience,” said Shama about voting at the Defence Public School polling station in DHA Sector S, as she and her friend watched young supporters of PML-N and PTI celebrate on the streets. “This is what we have been lacking, young people showing an interest. I am glad to see them all out and about,” she added.

Tanzeela, a resident of DHA Phase 8, said that arrangements at the polling station where she voted were very poor. “But while it took me almost three hours I have no regrets,” she said.

Her husband, Shaukat Umer, was voting for the first time. “I was never inclined to vote before as I found no one worthy,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2013.

As the son of former Punjab governor Mian Azhar – who started out as a politician in the PML-N and then played a large part in the formation of the PML-Q – Hammad had had offers. In 2007, he says, he refused party tickets from both the PPP and PML-Q.

“I was firm on my decision not to take part in politics,” says Hammad. “The politics which revolved around clans discouraged me.”

But the PTI was different, he says. “He [Imran Khan] wanted to change those realities which had repelled me from politics for long,” says Hammad. He and his father both joined the PTI in 2011.

“These elections will be about issues, not clans and traditional groupings,” thanks to the PTI’s efforts to raise awareness, he says.

At 31, this barrister-turned-businessman-turned politician is among the youngest candidates running for a National Assembly seat in Lahore. He began campaigning at NA-121, where he faces Mehr Ishtiaq of PML-N, in April. His first stop every morning is his party office at Gulshan-i-Ravi, where his daily schedule of activities is drawn up on a whiteboard. From noon to 4pm, he goes door to door to drum up support, after which he attends corner meetings till late into the night.

If elected, Hammad says, he will improve the most under-developed regions of NA-121, like the areas near the banks of the Ravi. “People are living in sub-human conditions there,” without electricity, water and gas, he says. “They are crying out for a change but we see funds being allocated for relatively developed areas.”

The PML-N government in the Punjab, he says, ignored basic amenities like safe drinking water, electricity, health and education, and invested in roads and buses instead, which he describes as “a gross misallocation of funds, if not a misuse”.

The government’s youth initiatives, like the handing out of laptops and solar lamps, he says, were shallow attempts to buy votes that fooled no one. “These handouts don’t work on youth, they can see right through such gimmicks,” he says.

He says while other parties are bringing in fresh blood and new ideas, the PML-N is spouting the same tired ideas through new faces like Maryam Nawaz and Hamza Shahbaz. “They have the same political ideology as their predecessors, there is nothing new and reformed,” he adds.

But as the scion of a political family, does the same criticism apply to him? Hammad says not. “My father was a misfit in the political system from the beginning, but by luck he bounced back,” he says. “As far as I am concerned, I’ve never felt a misfit in the PTI, nor do I have any affiliation with any other party.”

Looking to the future and a potential PTI government, Hammad says the 90-day deadline imposed by the party chief for the solution of myriad problems will help motivate legislators to take effective measures.

One of the government’s main concerns, he says, would be the elimination of terrorism. “We believe that the government’s dysfunctional policies are forcing people towards terrorism,” he says.

For the party, he says, one of the major challenges will be to adopt an identity beyond that of Imran Khan’s party. “The PTI has to transcend from being a party focused around one personality to a democratic party,” he says. This was why the internal party elections were important, he adds.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2013.

It was a harsh baptism into the world of Pakistani power politics for the then 20-something. More used to a life of privilege, he had then to deal with a range of issues concerning the Sharif family, for whom he was now the sole representative in Pakistan.

“I learnt a lot, from having my family in power, to running around dealing with court cases,” recalls Hamza, sitting at his party’s Model Town offices, right beneath a large portrait of a tiger.

Now in his late 30s  he is coy about revealing his exact age – Hamza has modelled himself on his uncle rather than his father. “My compatibility is greater with my uncle. He understands me well,” he says.

He says he sees both Shahbaz and Nawaz Sharif as role models, but also seeks to step out of their shadows. “When I won [in a by-election at NA-119 in 2008], I did not want to work in the shadows. I wanted to take initiatives on my own and prove my worth,” he says.

His priorities, he says, were education and health. His constituency got new or renovated women’s colleges in Gowalmandi and Choona Mandi, model hospitals in the vicinity of the Walled City, and restored historic sites. He says he was content with his performance. NA-118 has long been a PML-N stronghold and he is favourite to win this seat again.

Hamza vigorously defends the PML-N’s record of the last five years: Danish Schools, the laptop scheme, the construction of 4,500 IT labs and setting up of a Rs10 billion Punjab Endowment Fund. He says his party has made education their top priority. “We have worked at making education accessible to the lower stratum of society.

Everyone deserves equal and quality opportunities, especially in education,” he says.

He rejects the PTI’s criticisms of the PML-N’s education initiatives. “The laptop scheme was meant to benefit the youth, not to buy them off,” he says.

The Metro Bus Service, he says, has eased the commute for almost 150,000 residents of Lahore. There was no corruption in any projects. “There is no room for the old politics now,” he adds.

Tehreek-i-Insaf’s slogan of building a ‘Naya Pakistan’ rings hollow, he says. “The same faces we saw in the Musharraf era are now siding with Imran Khan. This is plain hypocrisy,” he says.

He also dismisses Imran Khan’s claim about ending terrorism in 90 days. “No one has a magic wand that will end terrorism.”

The PML-N believes in countering terrorism through dialogue, but it will take time,” he says. Another major challenge for the next government would be to tackle the energy crisis.

The upcoming elections, Hamza says, are a historic moment as they represent the first transition from one elected government to another.

“Leaving aside the quality of that government, it still is an achievement,” he says.

This time, he says, young people will have a large say in determining the outcome of the polls. But he adds: “I hope the youth will not be exploited by emotionally-charged slogans.”

For himself, Hamza’s ambition is to build a bigger identity outside the family name. “I don’t want to be remembered as Hamza Shahbaz Sharif. I want t be remembered as a person who did something for the people,” he says.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2013.

“To be honest I never imagined myself to be actually contesting the elections this year,” says Faraz, 33, a lawyer who has also worked alongside his brother in a family business. “Personally for me, it is a challenge since things have happened so fast.”

But his inexperience does not seem to faze him. “I have a fairly good idea of the issues in the constituency,” he says, having campaigned with his father at NA-118 for the 2008 elections, which they lost to Malik Riaz of PML-N.

While the PPP’s election campaign in the rest of the country has been fairly low-key because of security threats, Faraz says Lahore has been safe for all candidates. “My campaign has been running fairly smoothly. I can only comment on what I am witnessing,” he says.

He is speaking to The Express Tribune shortly after learning that the son of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has been kidnapped, which he describes as “shocking and worrying”. Faraz’s campaign for NA-118, and PP-138 was led by his father. Every day during the campaign, they took to the streets of the constituency for corner meetings and political gatherings.

“My father is doing all the major campaigning, including addressing the people,” he says, candidly. They repeatedly remind voters that his father ensured the removal of the toll plaza at Shahdara.

The constituency, he says, has the highest rate of hepatitis in the city and the provision of safe drinking water is vital. If elected, he says, he will also improve the sewerage system and roads in the area, and tackle poverty by creating jobs. “There is a high rate of unemployment here. People need to be given skills and employment,” he says.

Malik Riaz of the PML-N, the winner here in 2008 and running again this time, did little for the people of NA-118, says Faraz. He is also critical of the Tehreek-i-Insaf candidate. “What youth representation are they (PTI) talking about? The PTI candidate contesting from this constituency is Hamid Zaman!” he exclaims.

The PPP is the only party actually trusting younger candidates in Lahore, he says. “I am contesting against uncles,” he says, laughing.

Having younger politicians will be beneficial for the country, Faraz says. “This time it is going to be a youth-based parliament, unlike the traditional compositions we have had previously.”

“My ideology is to serve people. This is something which resonates with the PPP ideology,” he adds.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2013.

The State of the Economy: From Survival to Revival report was launched here on Tuesday with Governor Makhdoom Ahmad Mahmood attending as chief guest. It estimated that without power shortages, Pakistan could have had a growth rate of 4.5% rather than 3%.

The IPP report highlighted the security crisis and rising crime as indicators of weak governance and identified the “proactive” judiciary and media as factors in this. It described the foreign exchange reserve situation as “critical”.

In an evaluation of the quality of public services, the report noted that the public was least satisfied with the police and irrigation departments. It estimated that the police had taken bribes worth over Rs46 billion in the year, while the crime rate rose.

Two thirds of rural households reported a worsening of standard of living over the past five years due to inflation, insecurity, corruption and load-shedding, according to the report.

Divert funds

Speaking at the launch, Governor Mahmood said that he was in favour of all the resources earmarked in the Public Sector Development Programmes of the provinces for one year being diverted to the central government to tackle the energy crisis.

He said that Pakistan was a resilient country which had survived several financial, political and other challenges. He blamed the lack of governance for the instability in the country. “By now, we as a nation should have had a vision … as a politician, I feel we have let the nation down,” he said.

He said no party appeared to have an edge ahead of the “mother of all elections” on May 11. Whichever party wins would have a very difficult challenge due to the many problems the country faced. He said that the various political parties would have to learn to co-exist.

Dr Parvez Hassan, a board of directors member at the Lahore School of Economics, said that the fundamentals of the economy had weakened over the past five years, but it was still resilient.

He criticised the previous government’s development policy as flawed. He said that investment in human capital was key to improving the economy. “Pakistan faces deep security, financial and growth crises, all of which are interlinked,” he said.

Tax reform

IPP Vice Chairman Dr Hafiz Pasha said that the economy had deteriorated over the last 2-3 months. There had been a $4 billion drop in foreign exchange reserves and imports had reached their peak in March. He said that he had seen many financial crises during his service in government – in 1993, 1996 and 1998 – but the current one was the worst. He said tax reforms were vital. “We have been living way beyond our means for far too long,” he said.

IPP Director Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha said load shedding had crippled the economy and held back GDP growth.

Former Punjab governor Shahid Hamid said that structural reforms of public financing were essential. “There is too much unnecessary spending,” he said. “We cannot afford to spend money on development projects which are there just for show.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2013.

The Schools Education Department issued a notification on Monday stating that all schools in the province shall be closed from May 8 (Wednesday) to May 13 (Monday) in view of the elections on May 11.

But a representative of the All Pakistan Private School Managements Association (APPSMA) told The Express Tribune that private schools would be closed from May 10 (Friday) to May 12 (Sunday) only.

Private schools do not need to remain closed for an extended holiday, unlike government schools, said Adeeb Jawdani, central president of the APPSMA.”

“Students are already far behind in their studies because of various unscheduled holidays and we cannot risk their academic progress,” he said. Closing for almost a week would be a waste of time, he added.

The Schools Education Department notification states that all teachers and non-teaching staff assigned polling duties by the Election Commission of Pakistan must be present at their designated polling stations. All reserve polling staff must also remain available at their designated posting areas. Staff not detailed as polling staff or reserve staff should be available at their schools from May 8 to May 13, in case of a shortage of staff performing polling duties.

Schools Education Deputy Secretary Qaiser Rasheed said that government schools would be closed as most teachers would be engaged with polling duties. He said that the notification had been issued in compliance with the Punjab government’s orders. He said that the decision was made by Chief Minister Najam Sethi and then communicated to the department.

The Punjab University later confirmed that it would be closed from May 8 to 13 and its staff would be on election duty.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2013.

The early adopters

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf social media team was informally organised in 2007. The team has 50 members today and is divided into regions. Separate groups are responsible for back-end operations.

In December 2012, 28-year-old Imran Ghazali became the team leader. A finance graduate from the Ohio State University, Ghazali had been campaigning for Imran Khan and the PTI since 2007.

He returned to Karachi in 2011. Recently, Ghazali quit his job at a bank and moved to Lahore to invest more time in the PTI campaign.

He said that he had always wanted a formal set up but the party realised its potential ‘not very long ago.’

Ghazali says after social media was being used across the globe for campaigns like the Arab Spring, it was not difficult to convince the party leaders to seriously consider the idea. Also, he says, the PTI leadership is relatively more tech-savvy than leaders of other mainstream parties.

“We were the first to come up with the concept of a social media team. Obviously, we have an edge over the others,” he says.

In addition to managing the campaign on Twitter and Facebook, the PTI team runs an online television and a radio [Insaf TV and Insaf Radio.] “Our online groups have a larger following because the PTI has a strong youth following, connected to the virtual world,” he says.

Ghazali says the PTI team tries to update people on the most recent happenings.

“We offer live streaming of our jalsas – no other political party has achieved that,” he says.

The team runs an official Twitter handle, @PTIofficial, having more than 96,000 followers. Of the four official Facebook pages being run by the team, the official PTI page has over 640,000 likes.

There is an official code of conduct of PTI’s social media campaign. Ghazali says, “Some supporters get aggressive in the face of criticism especially of Imran Khan, but the party does not endorse aggressive behaviour.”

Ghazali denies reports of aggressive or offensive behavior by PTI team affiliates. He claims that investigations into complaints had revealed that fake accounts in the name of the party or its key members had been used for such activity. The team is travelling with party leaders to rallies from where live-streaming, tweeting, Facebook updates and pictures are uploaded.

Ghazali says the work has just begun. “There is a lot of prospect in this medium… considering the speed at which it is evolving,” he said.

Ghazali says he plans to look for another job after the elections.

The jiyala view

The PPP social media team has been around for almost four and a half years. Run by a group of 20 people, aged between 20 and 35, the team is spread out across the country.

The largest group is based at the PPP Central Secretariat in Islamabad. A six-member team runs its social media operations in Islamabad under Farhad Jarral, 25.

Jarral, who has a master’s in mass communication, started taking part in political activities as a student at the PECHS Education Foundation College, Karachi. He was the information secretary of the Peoples Students Foundation, the PPP’s student wing. In 2008, when the party decided to form a dedicated social media team, he signed up.

He says that the PPP is the only party which represents the entire country. ‘Jiyaala’, ‘Bhutto-ism’ and ‘democracy’ crop up often in his conversation.

“I am a hardcore jiyaala as are our other team members. We are here because of our passion,” says Jarral.

He says some PPP leaders initially doubted the use of a social media team. It was only because of the top leaders’ trust that the project got off, he adds. By then, the PTI was creating ripples on social media. This strengthened their cause.

Tasked with disseminating the ‘PPP point of view’, the team was formed to counter the ‘media’s partiality’ against the party, says Jarral.

“There is a lot of propaganda against the PPP on mainstream media,” he says, “We needed a platform to tell Pakistanis where we stood”.

Jarral says none of his team members are paid. “All work voluntarily.”

The team handles two Facebook pages, one with more than 44,000 likes. On Twitter, the official twitter handle @PPPSocialMedia, set up in 2012, has a little less than 4,000 followers.

“We have a simple understanding that our members must inform people about the party, our manifesto and our political direction,” he says. According to Jarral, the team has been directed to refrain from negative campaigning and ‘social media wars.’

Pointing at PTI, Jarral is of the view that groups, official or otherwise, tend to be aggressive against groups of a different political affiliation. “This is where the leaders of the party should take control. They should stop any use of abusive language,” he says, “We are representing a political ideology. We should be mindful of how we portray it.”

With the elections in sight, Jarral says the team is updating followers on the PPP campaign, but “we are still not as strong as we would like”.

Jarral says social media has come a long way. “Political parties just can’t afford to ignore it.”

He claims trends within parties have also changed as leaders have realised the potential of the medium. Post elections, he will propose to the PPP to train the rural youth in social media. “Social media is growing and is fast replacing the traditional media in the country,” he adds.

No trolling please

The PML-N social media team was conceived towards the end of 2011. By January 2012, the 20-member team, all aged 30 and below, was active in the virtual world.

The team is spread across the country with its headquarters in Lahore. PML-N has a large presence on Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook alone, it has eight official pages.

Saad Saleem Malik, 23, a postgrad student at Beaconhouse National University, is a senior member of the social media team.

He says he had long wanted to get the word out for democratic forces. In 2006, while Gen Pervez Musharraf was all over social media, no counter narrative was available. “I believe that the worst form of democracy is better than the best dictatorship,” he says.

Malik, a part of the PML-N social media team since its inception, says the party narrative entered the virtual world after PTI launched its social media campaign, .

While the party’s urban workers accepted the idea readily, he says, there was some resistance from rural workers. “Some of them still do not consider it [social media] a serious tool.”

The PML-N social media team had two basic objectives – interacting with the public and getting the party’s message across.

“Social media provides the speediest of response mechanisms…this helps the party evaluate its policies,” he says.

Malik says acceptance of the medium is growing within the party. Top leaders including former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif regularly monitor the party Facebook page. Maryam Nawaz, Marvi Memon and Ahsan Iqbal are active on Twitter, he adds.

The most popular official Facebook page run by the PML-N is of Shahbaz Sharif, with more than 415,000 likes. On Twitter, the PML-N Media handle, @PMLNMedia, has more than 5,000 followers. More than 11,000 people follow their official party handle.

Malik says the social media campaigning gained momentum when the caretaker set up took charge. With elections approaching, the team is focusing its efforts on highlighting the PML-N led Punjab government’s work, particularly in education and health.

“The worst part of the social media engagement is trolling whereby even genuine criticism gets lost,” Malik says.

The team members are not allowed to respond to ‘propaganda’ or ‘negativity’, he says. Twenty-four people were recently removed from the social media team over code of conduct violations.

“Initially we received a lot of bashing on social media because of our policy of not responding … over time people have realised that we are not interested in social media wars – they let us be,” he says.

As far as the strength of the medium is concerned, Malik believes there is no denying the fact that after these elections, all political parties would need to take social media seriously.

“There is no going back. This medium has proved its worth. It is here to stay!”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2013.