PTI appears defensive in district politics

More than 1.18 million registered voters will exercise their right to vote for the two national and four provincial assembly seats of the Chakwal and Talagang districts in the upcoming general elections.

According to the voter list and the data released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) regarding the preparation of general elections, the number of male voters in the two districts is 602,806 while the number of female voters stands at 508,495 out of the total 1,186,901 registered voters.

As for the general political situation of the district, especially Chakwal City, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which dominated the district politics before May 9, is currently in a completely defensive position.

The self-styled so-called PTI leaders, who had emerged on the political horizon with the dream of conquering the urban circles to gain power, have gone into hiding.

The PTI voter looks helpless and desperate after some of the party leaders were subdued while others fled the country. In the present circumstances, one thing is quite clear whoever stood by the PTI’s platform in these testing times, will be immortalised in the political history of the district.

On the other hand, on the occasion of general elections, the real competition is expected to be between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PTI.

After the votes of the religious circles, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is expected to secure the third or fourth position and like the previous elections, the regional factions will play an important role in the success of any candidate.

Meanwhile, the position of the PML-N seems to be very weak due to poor administrative performance and an inability to control inflation in the last two and a half years.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2023.