Political favouritism PML-N style
Nawaz Sharif’s speech in Lodhran, where a National Assembly constituency is being hotly contested between the PML-N and PTI, was for all intents and purposes an exercise in canvassing for the PML-N candidate. Sharif also distributed cheques among the beneficiaries of the Prime Minister’s Kissan Package and announced a hefty development fund of Rs2.5 billion for the area. Explaining the rationale for providing an unusually big sum, he said as the people of the area had expressed their love for the PML-N by voting for it again and again, the party now wanted to pay them back. The statement raises two questions: Does this imply that those who voted against the PML-N would get a lesser share of development funds from the state exchequer? Is the discriminatory use of public funds a just and fair practice?
Legally speaking, there can be no objection to distributing the cheques among the specified categories of poor farmers after the Islamabad High Court restored the Rs341 billion package and set aside the suspension order from the Election Commission of Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif can also claim that at the time he addressed the gathering the election schedule for the constituency was yet to be announced on the media and therefore he was not subject to restrictions put on the PM’s campaigning by the Supreme Court. Legal niceties apart, is the speech at Lodhran in line with the spirit of free and fair elections? Does it not queer the pitch for the PTI candidate?
One wonders why the government chose to announce the development package weeks before the polls. All the more so when the PML-N candidate was in a strong position as the results of the local government polls in the constituency indicate. The announcements made by the PM have provided the PTI a chance to accuse him of involvement in “blatant pre-poll rigging”. The government needs to encourage the PTI to confine its protests within the Parliament. For this it has to avoid providing the party any reasonable excuse to take to the streets.
