KARACHI, Sept 15: Although the election schedule has entered into its last phase to be culminated with polling on October 10, political parties — instead of going for full scale campaigning of their candidates — are still in discussions with like minded parties to get weak candidates retired in favour of potential candidates who could defeat their main opposition.

Their attention was drawn to the fact that if they remained engaged in holding talks for reaching an understanding with candidates of other parties opposing pro-government candidates, when would they mobilize voters in support of their party candidates, as only 25 days were left till the polls. They said that corner meetings were going, on alongwith talks, and it was a matter of only 24 hours when everything would be crystallized.

Pakistan Muslim League (N) Sindh President Imdad Chandio said that their final round of talks was scheduled for Saturday with like minded parties, and they were quite hopeful that everything as far as they were concerned would be finalized by today, and they would release the list of the candidates contesting on PML (N) tickets, along with the decision of the party regarding the extension of support to candidates where PML (N) candidates were not in the field.

So far, there appeared to be no silver linings on the horizon, as the ongoing talks have stalled on these seats, as both sides which are engaged in talks appeared reluctant to ask their candidates to take a back seat.

Meanwhile, major political parties, particularly the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Pakistan Muslim League (Q), Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian are busy in holding corner meetings in different constituencies in support of their candidates. In the corner meetings, speakers by and large had been following the code of conduct which states that “political parties and candidates shall ensure that their supporters do not create obstructions in or break up meetings and processions organized by the other parties. Workers, sympathizers of one political party shall not create disturbance at public meetings organized by another political party.

So far, these parties have remained peaceful, and no untoward incident, except minor skirmishes, had been reported from any part of the city which indicated that during last three years, political parties and their workers have learnt a lot about the rules of the game — particularly of tolerance.

An important manifestation of this fact is that no party has so far tried to disturb the meetings of rival candidates. Even small parties, which include the Sindh Democratic Alliance, Awami National Party, National Awami Party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Pakistan Millat Party, Pakistan Awami Tehreek, and Mohajir Qaumi Movement, have also put up their candidates and are holding their corner meetings without any interference from the candidates of rival parties, except a few incidents.

However, massive public meetings are yet to be held in the city, for which different parties have applied to the authorities to get necessary permission for the venue and the date for such meetings.