PTI’s recent losses have made opposition more confident

The ruling party’s poor showing in the local government polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has their opponents licking their lips for their prospects in future elections especially in the country’s most populous province.

Since Punjab holds a major chunk of the available seats in the National Assembly, political parties’ focus their attention and efforts on the province, come every general election cycle, as a route to forming a government in the center. This time around, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is once again claiming that they will win the next elections by a landslide in Punjab.

Naveed Chaudhry, a senior PPP leader and Asif Ali Zardari’s coordinator, while talking to The Express Tribune, expressed his jubilation at the resurgence of his party in the province. “A vacuum was created after the Charter of Democracy and the martyrdom of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. As a result, the party suffered an organizational setback and after 2008 the party workers joined other parties, but now Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto have jointly worked out a plan and have reorganized the party,” he informed.

Chaudhry and others in the party believe that proof that the party is back in Punjab is in the recently held by-election in NA-133. In 2018, the PPP’s candidate managed a measly 5,500 votes in NA-133, but in the current by-election their candidate got 32,313 votes.

“Even though we did not win the Khanewal seat, an increase in our electorate is the party’s success,” he stated. Chaudhry believes that their main opponent the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has not benefitted as much from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) poor governance as much as the PPP has. “The PTI’s poor performance has turned young political workers towards us and therefore PPP’s graph is rising once again,” he added.

Read People have had enough of PTI govt, says opposition

However, PML-N leader, Azma Bukhari disagreed with Chaudhry, stating that the PTI and PPP can use all possible tactics to increase their popularity but it would do little for them. “The PPP had already sunk its fleet in Punjab and invested money in NA-133 to lose in the end,” Bukhari said. An adamant Bukhari said that it was clear that the PML-N is the only popular party amongst the people. When asked about the PPP’s candidate receiving more votes as compared to 2018, Bukhari stated: “they only polled more votes because the PTI did not have a candidate in the by-election. In reality, our graph is growing and PML-N will win the next general election.”

Political parties may be enthusiastic about the next general election but some of Punjab’s residents do not share this enthusiasm. Shumaila, a resident of Lahore, despondently remarked that she had trusted the PTI and before that she had trusted the PML-N, but no one did anything for the betterment of the people and controlling inflation.

Similarly, Muhammad Usman, another resident of Lahore, while talking to The Express Tribune, dejectly said, “we had hoped that the PTI would do something but inflation has made life miserable for the masses.”

Despite the citizens’ woes regarding inflation and unemployment, PTI Senator, Ijaz Chaudhry is confident that his party will further increase their vote bank in the upcoming election. “As far as inflation is concerned, the government will be able to control it in the next few months because of its new policies,” he informed. Ijaz Chaudhry opined that had the PTI fielded a candidate in the NA-133 election, its opposition would have seen that the PTI is the only popular party in the province. “The people will fully support the PTI in the coming elections and we will come into power once again,” he predicted while talking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2021.