Campaign cycle sympathising a stark reality

With campaign season about to conclude, the populace of Peshawar is worried that public representatives that they eventually choose will end up forsaking their respective constituencies until the next campaign cycle or election. Residents of Khyber Paktunkhwa’s (K-P) capital feel that once their chosen candidates have landed in the provincial or National Assembly, they move back to their homes in Islamabad and forget about the promises they have made during the campaign cycle.

One such resident is Noman Khan, who lives near the Railway Lines area. “Candidates become overly concerned and sensitive to our problems during election season but once that abates we are left on our own,” regretted Noman. When asked to elaborate on the problems in his constituency, Noman said that the drainage in the area was quite poor and the problem had exacerbated in the last two years. “Whenever it rains, our entire vicinity becomes a pond, which impacts routine life but no one has addressed it yet despite making promises,” he added.

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Asif Khawaja, a resident of the Corporation Colony area, which is the same as Noman’s constituency, agrees. “During a recent funeral in our community, 4 National Assembly candidates, 6 K-P Assembly candidates, and 1 independent candidate came to offer condolences. However, this is in stark contrast to their usual behaviour,” informed Asif. “For instance, a couple of years ago when the electricity transformer of the area blew up, we kept calling the candidate who won from our constituency, to help address the problem but he was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, the people who live here had to get a new transformer by collecting donations,” elaborated Asif.

Noman and Asif’s contentions carry weight as currently in Peshawar, where 5 National Assembly and 13 provincial assembly constituencies are up for grabs, candidates have opened up election offices on nearly every street to attract voters; however, as soon as the election is over, many of these election offices will be shut down, as is the norm. In this regard, Kulsoom Bibi, a resident of the Dalazak Road area of the provincial capital, was of the view that if the election offices remain present in their neighbourhoods throughout the year, it would really benefit the populace.

“If our Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) and Member of National Assembly (MNA) visit their respective election offices even once a month after the election, they can better understand our issues like lack of clean water, improper sewage, and poor quality education and health,” implored Kulsoom. Concurring with Kulsoom, Sajid, a rickshaw driver from the Chamkani area of NA-29 Peshawar, told The Express Tribune that these days one can show up at an election office and he or she will be served food and tea but come February 8th all of it would be shut down. Commenting on the elected representatives’ disregard for their constituencies post-election, Professor Dr Abdul Rauf, former chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of Peshawar, remarked that candidates have to go beyond mere activities in the election office and empty promises in campaigns and rallies.

“If public representatives were in touch with their constituencies, they would have a better sense of how to solve the basic problems of the people they are accountable to. This traditional politics of attending marriages and funerals to attract voters’ attention needs to be buried once and for all,” asserted Dr Abdul Rauf while talking to the Express Tribune.