KARACHI:
A large banner with Nawaz Sharif’s image and the prospect of hours of waiting for their leader to show up greeted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supporters as they entered the Marquee area at the Pear Continental Hotel, the venue for the PML-N’s Sindh council elections.
Six hundred council members were eligible to vote, according to Saleem Zia, Since Ghous Ali Shah was the only candidate for the provincial president position, party workers muttered about the ‘unfairness’ of it all.
One group, led by organiser Hafeezuddin and lawyer and party worker Qadir Khan Mandokhail, staged a walkout when Shah’s name was announced, saying that they opposed this. Mandokhail told The Express Tribune prior to the walkout that theirs was a democratic party and every worker had the right to express his or her discontent.
Others were also disgruntled.
“This is a selection, not an election,” complained a supporter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Ghous Ali Shah hasn’t done any work. Mamnoon Hussain has toured Sindh and reorganised the party. Shah only knows landlords and investors, not party workers, but how many prominent people has Shah brought on board?”
Hussain, a former governor of Sindh, said that he was not running against Shah. “Mian sahib said we should agree on a united candidate,” he told The Express Tribune. “This is not an issue.” Sharif thanked Hussain for proposing Ghous Ali Shah as a candidate. Hussain predicted that the party would win more seats in the next general elections than it did in 1997, when PML-N won a majority of seats in the elections that were marred with widespread allegations of rigging.
Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Khan was an early arrival at the elections and spoke to party workers, many of who had travelled from different districts in Sindh. Also at the elections were former National Assembly speaker Ilahi Bux Soomro, Senator Mushahidullah Khan, MNA Ahsan Iqbal, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, new PML-N member Irfanullah Marwat, the head of the Punjabi Pakhtun Ittehad, Imdad Chandio and Nihal Hashmi.
The elections were considerably delayed because Sharif’s flight did not take off from Lahore on schedule due to fog in the city. To occupy themselves, party workers - some of who had pinned Sharif’s picture on their clothes or sported a pin depicting a tiger - descended on the hotel’s cafes to drink endless cups of tea. Those who stayed at the venue recited poems and songs lauding Nawaz Sharif and chanted slogans.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2012.
COMMENTS (12)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
No body can stop Nawaz to come in power. He is smiling now.
@Mehran: yes we know his honesty is still written on the walls of Zeal Pak Cement factory!
@Waqas, i agree with your point. First we should bring change in ourselves, then talk about others. Why our nation give vote to these people who can't change their constituency when they were, are in power.
That is why youth is irritated from PMLN.
@Pakistani: that's hold true for PTI as well now. how shah mehmood quershi was elected, through election? will imran khan make some other person as chairman?
@Hadayat: ok, so you can come in from PTI plateform. aren't they given tickets to the same people who have been elected 4-5 times.
Undemocratic election. They can't bring change in Pakistan.
Same as in Peshawar. he appointed all the candidates. Then why have elections in the first place.
Will these people ever learn? This guy (Ghous) has been around for decades. For god sake, please give us and yourself a break because we are sick of seeing the same idiots again and again.
Ghous Ali Shah is very honest politician and loyal Muslim leagui. We hope he will work for the welfare of Sindh using the platform of PMLN.
Shah has been elected because no other candidate had stood up to contest the election against him. If Hafeezuddin or anyone else had such a problem with Shah contesting the election, they should have contested the election against him. You cannot call the election undemocratic because nobody stood up for election but Shah, therefore Shah got elected. Ghous Ali Shah brought all the top leaders of Sindh into PMLN from 1993-1997 and was able to form a government of PMLN in Sindh only because of that, party workers do not know how much Shah has done for the party. Not many in Karachi know who Mamnoon Hussain is, and nobody at all in interior Sindh knows who is Mamnoon, Shah is known throughout the country and lauded.