NA by-polls race wide open for PTI

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led coalition government, excluding the MQM-P, has decided not to participate in the upcoming by-elections of the National Assembly, key cabinet ministers and several leaders of the ruling parties confirmed to the Express Tribune on Thursday.

Apparently, the move would leave the election race wide open for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to regain the hold of its lost constituencies and reclaim the office of the opposition in the National Assembly and take part in the formation of the caretaker setup provided they return on all the seats.

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and its allied parties have reached the decision after several rounds of consultations, including meetings that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held with heads of the allied parties and talks among the parties.

PML-N’s two ministers confirmed to The Express Tribune that the PML-N as well as its allied parties would not participate in the by-elections scheduled to be held on March 16, which had fallen vacant after the National Assembly speaker accepted resignations of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers. “The PML-N as well as the coalition government is not going to take part in the upcoming NA by-polls,” Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal confirmed.

“The PPP will not take a solo flight; rather, it will go with the coalition government and the allies, including the ANP,” former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani revealed, adding the PPP would stand with the coalition government. Another PPP leader said that contesting the by-polls would be a collective decision of the coalition partners in the government.

JUI-F spokesperson Aslam Ghauri also confirmed that the JUI-F will not take part in the by-elections, saying it would be a useless exercise knowing that the general elections were just around the corner. The spokesperson was of the view that participating in the by-polls was tantamount to wasting time and money.

Meanwhile, MQM-P MNA Kishwar Zehra said that the party has so far been taking part in the NA by-polls but a final decision would soon be taken after a meeting of the Rabita Committee.

Another MQM-P leader revealed that several leaders of the allied parties have approached the MQM-P to convince it to not take part in the polls. However, he said, the Rabita Committee would take the final decision in a few days.

Initially, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman had announced that his party would not participate in the by-elections. A JUI-F leader revealed that the Maulana met with PM Shehbaz and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in the recent past at Islamabad and Lahore and tried to convince them that the ruling coalition shouldn’t contest NA by-polls. A PML-Q leader also said that the party has no intention to take part in the NA by-polls.

After deciding not to contest NA by-polls, it was reported that PM Shehbaz also convinced PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to stay away from the by-polls. The meeting had taken place after the PPP’s parliamentary board had concluded that PPP should go with coalition government’s decision.

The government’s decision has left PTI and independent candidates as the only ones still contesting NA by-polls. Surprisingly, PTI while following its track record has been conveying that it might not return to the NA after the polls. Previously, the PTI had stood victorious in the by-elections even when it had announced beforehand that it would not return to the assembly.

Thus, the polls would just be held to fulfill a constitutional requirement and millions of rupees would simply go waste as the general elections would be held again after completion of the assembly’s constitutional term.

The Constitution makes it mandatory to fill a vacant assembly seat at the earliest to ensure that no constituency is deprived of representation in parliament, but its framers had not imagined that one day political parties and their candidates would render the whole exercise futile.

The upcoming by-elections for the 33 NA seats, which fell vacant after Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted the resignations of the PTI lawmakers, is just an example of this. Following the speaker’s decision, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced the by-elections for the 33 constituencies on March 16.