Misplaced chagrin all around
Individual by-elections in a particular constituency can, in no way, serve as an index of how things will play out in a general election. There is too much entropy in the body-politic for that to happen. Yes, politics here is politics there but the contours of each constituency are still different in their own way.
But the candidacy of Qadir Gilani for the Multan seat his father was forced to vacate was too much of an opportunity for the media to let go of. This election will determine, many from the commentariat claimed, how the sitting federal government has lost its mandate. And so, off it was to the polls, where the Gilanis were to face longtime rivals, the Bosan clan. In what was a nail-biting election, Gilani won by a lead of four thousand.
Many sheepish grins on TV ensued. Goal-posts had to be shifted: but he only managed to scrape through by such a short margin, was the new catchphrase.
True, the number, if compared to the senior Gilani’s lead in ‘08, was small, but the comparison is not apple-to-apple. Whereas in the last election, different parties fielded their own candidates, this one was the PPP vs all the rest. Mr Bosan got the Jamaat’s support. And the PML(N)’s. And the PTI’s.
Whereas Mr Bosan maturely accepted there had been no rigging in the election he had just lost – may all candidates of the future be like him in this regard – some from the PTI’s media machine were screaming quite the opposite!
The above two types of tut-tutting of the elections results, however flawed, are not mean spirited. That particular distinction went to those pundits who appeared on the airwaves and rather than weighing the lead or contesting the validity of the results, saw it fit to be caustic towards the electorate itself. Idiots, said some; illiterates, said others. Classy.
A respect for the will of the people is paramount for the polity to get anywhere. As explained earlier, individual elections don’t mean anything more than what they do. But for whatever it is worth, the people of Multan have spoken. Opponents of the PPP had better learn to grin and bear it.