Reality check
The PML-N has bagged the largest number of seats in Punjab followed by independent candidates. The PTI stands a distant third in the contest. The PPP’s performance was miserable. In Sindh the PPP won by an overwhelming majority, followed by a handful of independents or nominees of local alliances and PML-F. The PTI was at the bottom of the ranking list and PML-N practically nowhere.
PTI, which had a meteoric rise in Punjab, would do well to take a reality check. The party has in the past blamed its lack of performance on rigging. The excuse won’t satisfy anyone other than party loyalists. It is time Imran Khan comes out of the delusion that everyone who comes to hear his speeches carries one hundred votes in his pocket. The PTI neither reached out to the voters living in poor neighbourhoods and slums of the city nor those in the rural areas.
The PPP needs to understand that it cannot win the elections in Punjab simply by conjuring up the spirits of its ‘martyrs’. It has to devise a progressive policy and present to the people an inspiring and active leadership. As things stand it has neither.
The PML-N must not look like the party of a single province as it appears after its absence from the electoral scene in eight districts of upper Sindh. The party will not be able to strike roots by collecting around it some of the antiquated feudal lords. It should concentrate on the rising Sindhi middle class and the rural masses who suffer from abject poverty. In case PML-N and PPP remain confined to their respective provincial strongholds, they would strengthen parochial tendencies harmful for the unity of the country.
The elections have cut down parties like JI, PAT and PML-Q to their size. In the case of the first two, despite their being highly organised, resourceful and raucous, their appeal remains limited to a very small section of society. With the PML-Q losing in Gujrat also, the party has been confined to a handful of parliamentarians.