Lessons to learn for PTI
The PP-196 by-elections results would make the PTI and PPP draw the right lessons. After the PTI’s dismal performance in the Cantonment Boards polls, the defeat in Multan should act as an eye-opener. The party needs to realise that much more is needed to win the elections than merely throwing challenges and making empty claims. Among other things a party which is in control of a province has to prove that it possesses the ability to govern and put up credible performance. Despite claims of doing wonders in KP, the PTI has failed to convince many that the party had retrieved the promises made during the elections.
The by-elections did not turn out to be the ‘tight fight’ some had expected. There was a big margin between the votes cast for PML-N’s winning candidate and those secured by the runner up. People had presumably not heeded to Imran Khan’s advice at the Multan rally a week earlier. “You need to show PML-N that they have not fulfilled their promises,” was his suggestion. The only positive thing was the acceptance of defeat by PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood who also congratulated the winning candidate. One wonders if this really signals a change in PTI’s political culture marked by intolerance.
The PPP scored the third position getting less than one fourth of the votes bagged by the frontrunner. This indicates there is no change in party’s public rating since the 2013 elections. As things stand, the PML-N and PTI remain the two top parties in the largest province. The PPP has apparently failed to cope with its internal problems which led the party to recall Bilawl Bhutto who had started to make some impact and party leaders in Punjab hoped that the young leader would retrieve the PPP’s fortunes in the province. In case the PPP fails to improve its present position by the next elections three years hence, it can at the most hope to be a junior partner of either of the two major parties in Punjab.
