The PTI has slogged it out in the heat and dust of legal cases to win back the country’s political capital after being ousted from Islamabad and now, the long-anticipated nail-biting test match in Punjab is finally set to play out on Friday.
But as the thick smog of uncertainty yields to some hints about the possible outcome, the former ruling party is seemingly being haunted by the spectre of alleged horse-trading which, it alleges, cost it dearly the last time it took on its arch-rivals.
With a dollop of hope, it muddles through the commerce of politics even as much of the thorns have been cleaned up.
Here, one is immediately reminded of Marlon Brando’s epic line from Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel ‘The Godfather': “I'm going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”.
Apparently, the line is once again at play in the country’s heated power struggle as PTI sounds alarms that its lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly were being ‘roped in’ through the lures of money – a claim that PML-N counters with similar allegations.
Nevertheless, it’s time to handle the truth as the stage is all set for the run-off elections for Punjab chief minister’s office on July 22, the only unanswered question is whether it will be a walkover for PTI-PML-Q amid claims that tables will be turned at the last minute by the rival parties.
Read Punjab CM poll: PML-N refutes PTI's allegations of bribing MPAs
The numbers are important but they suddenly become irrelevant when defection takes place or when the lawmakers are allegedly lured into doing something they ‘can’t refuse’.
Although the PML-N displayed grace after losing the majority of seats in Punjab’s recent by-elections on 20 seats, it seems it is not ready to subscribe to Queensberry rules anymore.
“This will not be an easy walk for PTI, it will have a taste of its own medicine,” PML-N’s Mohsin Shah Nawaz Ranjha said and claimed that PTI MPAs don’t like Pervaiz Elahi and they won’t vote for him.
Recalling how PTI created hurdles for PML-N when it didn’t have a majority, Ranjha said that the chief minister’s election will not be a piece of cake for PTI as the PML-N-led coalition will not easily give up.
He alleged that PTI resorted to unconstitutional tactics when it didn’t have the numbers to elect its candidate – Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi – against Hamza Shehbaz. He further made the claims that PTI lawmakers have reservations over the nomination of Elahi as Punjab CM by PTI’s core committee and hoped that many of them would simply stay away from the voting process.
Sensing the danger, PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said that PTI and PML-Q have started gathering their lawmakers in a local hotel from where they would go to the Punjab assembly on July 22.
“There is no problem except the money problem,” Chaudhry said, saying the other side was testing the nerves of lawmakers by throwing so huge amount of money. He said that the matter will be brought to Supreme Court’s notice.
By Wednesday night, there were several MPAs or people speaking on their behalf claiming that either they have been offered money or threatened but the tactics won’t work anymore.
Political analysts, however, reckon that the results on July 22 would show if the lawmakers picked ideology over money or, as famously said, listened to their "inner callings" just the way some of the lawmakers heard when the then opposition parties had brought in a no-confidence motion against the former premier Imran Khan.
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