Improved 2007 prospects for PML

LAHORE: The results of the two phases of the local elections in Punjab show that the ruling party has done better than the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the two major opposition alliances which had put up candidates after mutual adjustments.

In urban areas, opposition-backed candidates performed better, but the impact was neutralized by the support the PML contestants got from rural areas. Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who is also provincial president of the PML, claims that his party has won about 80 per cent of the seats.

The PPP, the PML-N and the MMA have alleged large-scale rigging, an allegation vehemently denied by the ruling party.

For the PML the results will be encouraging; for the opposition, they are not. Many of those elected with the opposition’s support are likely to switch loyalties in the weeks ahead. If they stay with their respective parties, they will not be in a position to do much for their constituencies.

The amended Local Government Ordinance gives sweeping powers to the chief minister, and he can suspend the nazim or a resolution adopted by the district or tehsil assembly for three months. In the presence of these powers, it will be a test of patience for opposition representatives to stay the course.

The PML was helped by the chief minister’s visits to most district headquarters and his meetings with district leaders to settle internal rifts. President Musharraf’s statements in favour of the ruling party and against what he called ‘extremists and retrogressive elements’ also helped.

In contrast, the leaders of the PPP and the PML-N did not show much enthusiasm — possibly because they knew that the ruling party would win the polls anyway.

Punjab PPP president Qasim Zia, who is also provincial president of the ARD, visited only a few areas, but not the whole of Punjab. His secretary-general, Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan, confined himself to Faisalabad, the district he comes from. As a result, the candidates had to devise their own election strategies.

The situation in the PML-N was no different. Provincial president Zulfikar Khosa remained in Dera Ghazi Khan, where his son was in the race. The new general secretary, Zaeem Qadri, stayed in the provincial capital, offering little help to party candidates elsewhere.

The MMA did not have much at stake in Punjab and their leaders also worked only in a few areas.

Thus, the provincial leaders of the PPP, the PML-N and the MMA can claim little credit for the success of their respective candidates across the country. Those who won, won because of their personal efforts.

The PML-N suffered serious setbacks because of defections, specially in southern Punjab, the region Sardar Zulfikar Khosa comes from. His decision to work in close cooperation with the ruling party’s Maqsood Leghari’s group to defeat the group of the former president Farooq Leghari remained under animated discussion in political circles. While Mr Khosa defends the decision, his critics say the strategy was aimed more at getting his son elected than defeating Farooq Leghari’s group. They say if Khosa was justified in opposing one set of the Legharis belonging to the ruling party, there was no rationale in joining hands with the other Legharis, the Mazaris or the Dreshaks of the same party.

The elections showed that the ruling party was not fully united and there were areas where the local leaders did not follow instructions issued by the Punjab chief minister. The Rahim Yar Khan district offers a good example. The chief minister expressed the party’s support for Rafiq Leghari, a PPP turncoat, a move that was opposed by former nazim Ahmed Mehmud. Federal minister Jehangir Tareen put his weight behind Mehmud, prompting the chief minister to issue a statement that defiance would not be tolerated. (The prime minister is reported to have said that since the elections were held on a non-party basis, there was no question of any disciplinary action against anyone).

In Chakwal, senior leader Majeed Malik was following his own course. Federal minister Sher Afgan Niazi has levelled allegations against the rival Rokharis, represented in the provincial cabinet.

There were also problems at some other places. However, the leader of an opposition party said internal rifts of the ruling party should not be celebrated as they would be overcome with the passage of time. He said a matter of concern should be that in areas where the ruling PML seemed in trouble, the opposition was not the alternative choice. So, he said, it made no difference whether one faction of the ruling party prevailed or the other.

In Lahore, the opposition has performed better than expected. If last time it had one nazim against five of the ruling party, this time it may have increased representation — provided there are no defections.

Results from Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Vehari, Sialkot and Kasur, too, are encouraging for the opposition. But some leaders say the situation will change if the winners join hands with the ruling party. The victory of the opposition in Rawal Town of Rawalpindi is quite significant. Even the prime minister mentioned the fact while talking to reporters in Lahore the other day.

The ruling party is facing a serious situation in Sargodha where the chief minister has nominated MNA Chaudhry Anwar Ali Cheema as candidate for district nazim. Some other forces in the district have refused to accept him. There are reports that the PPP’s Parachas may join the ruling party if they are offered the top office of the district.

The results also show that the ruling PML is the strongest party at present and no other party will be able to compete with it in the political field if the faction led by the exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif decided to merge with it. But this will not be possible in the presence of Gen Pervez Musharraf and other leaders like Farooq Leghari.

The outcome of the local polls also establishes that the PML- N, which once had a two-thirds majority in parliament, is now the junior partner of the PPP. In the absence of the Sharifs, the party is losing its popular support, notwithstanding claims to the contrary.

Since most of the leaders cannot stay away from power for long, those who have already exhausted their patience in the opposition may cross over to the ruling party in the future. This means that the ruling coalition can win the general election of 2007 quite conveniently. A victory for the coalition means that Gen Pervez Musharraf will not find it difficult to get elected for another term as president.

A delayed bridge over Indus River

It was on January 28, 2004 when Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, then Sindh minister for works and services, took an aerial view of proposed bridge over the Indus River, connecting Larkana and Khairpur Mirs’ district.

Ex-District Nazim Khursheed Junejo, Sindh Minister Haji Altaf Unnar and PML-Q leader Masood Khuhro accompanied Dr Arbab.

The Sindh minister for planning and development, Shoaib Bokhari, during his visit to Larkana said everything was final and the bridge would be constructed this year.

Mr Bokhari was even sure that it would be included in the Public Sector Development Programme 2005.

The bridge will cost Rs2335.75 million including construction of certain link roads and acquisition of 464 acre land.

Dr Rahim had said a team would visit roadsides and alignments after Eid-ul-Zuha.

The commitment remained unfulfilled even after Dr Arbab Rahim became the chief minister.

Since the 70s, people of Larkana and Khairpur districts have been demanding construction of a bridge over the Indus River.

When Gen Zia visited Sukkur on December 12, 1984, delegations from the two districts placed the demand for the bridge.

Subsequently, the Sindh government worked out a plan that was rejected but people kept demanding the project and met former Prime Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo.

Mr Junejo issued directives in September 1986 for preparing a feasibility report.

People revived their demand when the Benazir Bhutto-led PPP government took over in 1989.

In January 1989, the Sindh government submitted a summary for constructing a boat bridge as a temporary arrangement.

Though the prime minister okayed the temporary solution but asked for a feasibility report for a permanent bridge, seeking technical support from the National Highway Authority.

In August 1990, the NHA submitted a report and following confirmation, the AA Associates was assigned job to design the project.

Consultants studied alignments and recommended Ranipur-Gambat-Agra- Bakrani-Larkana alignment.

Benazir Bhutto gave go ahead for another alignment — Ranipur-Gambat-Ripri-Akil-Larkana — while third recommendation Ranipur-Sagyoon-Moenjodaro-Dokri-Larkana was not touched.

The Sindh government forwarded a new proposal and in 1991 amid political upheavals and bureaucratic buoyancy.

Unfortunately, it was again rejected with justification being close to four-lane bridge over the River Indus financed by the Asian Development Bank near Sukkur.

The Sindh government stuck to its guns till May 14, 1991.

In the meantime, the prime minister on November 4, 1993 directed to consider three new locations — Moenjodaro-Sagyoon Tal-Gambat, Akil to Gambat and Burira to Ketti Pir Pagaro.

Former deputy commissioner of Larkana, Shams Jaferani told Dawn in November 1996 that tenders for the project were called in October 1996 and an Iranian firm had offered the lowest bid for construction of 1,222-meter long bridge at the cost of Rs2,108.787 million.

Mr Jaferani was optimistic to see the project to take off by December 1996.

With the change of government, the project was thrown into clod storage and entire exercise had gone down the drain.

The project that could have triggered huge economic activity was included in the Public Sector Development Programme 1996-97 and again it appeared in the PSDP 2004-05 and an amount of Rs5 million was allocated.

According to the planning and development division, the construction of bridge over the Indus River would cost Rs2500 million.

Many meetings among then commissioners of Larkana and Sukkur and district nazims of Larkana and Khairpur to finalize the project remained inconclusive.

The government had finalized location of Larkana-Bakrani-Agra-Ranipur, the sources said.

Recently, the NHA had invited tenders for conducting pre-feasibility study which looks quite irrelevant as such study had already been carried out with huge amount spent on it.

In a cursory view one could see the bridge over the River Indus would not only provide alternate route to traffic but also connect the National Highway (N-5) with the Indus Highway (N-55).

At present, vehicular traffic from the Ranipur passes from the Sukkur Bridge and reaches Larkana after covering 154 kilometres.

The distance between Larkana and Khairpur is 116 kilometres while the distance between Larkana and Sukkur is 96 kilometres.

If the bridge is constructed, it will reduce the distance from 154 kilometres to only 38 kilometres between Larkana and Khairpur districts, said district officer planning, Ghulam Mustafa Soomro.

The project will herald a new era of communication in the belt covering a population of four to five million on both banks of the River Indus.

MQM’s Senator Dr Mohammed Ali Brohi said the federal communications minister had approved the project and President Gen Pervez Musharraf had agreed to perform ground breaking ceremony around in September this year.

Gen Musharraf’s visit to the area is seen as of high importance in the backdrop of ‘victory’ of government-backed panels in Larkana and Khairpur districts.

The new markets for agriculture goods will open employment chance to accommodate hundreds of educated youth and skilled labourer.

It is a ripe time for the rulers to seriously address the issue and people’s old demand.

Local elections mess

ONE would have thought that the local body elections would turn out to be a smoother and better organized exercise than the first local body polls in 2001. But the havoc surrounding last week’s second round of this year’s local body polls speak volumes for the authorities’ preparedness, or the lack of it, in electoral democracy.

Voters who turned up on August 25 to exercise their right to choose their local leaders were actually risking their lives because display of arms, firing, violent clashes between rival political groups, and other kinds of attacks on polling stations were common.

According to one non-government organization which surveyed 102 polling stations during the polling on August 18 and 25, violence was reported in a quarter of the polling stations surveyed. The NGO also said that it could not conduct surveys in 27 other polling stations because voting had been suspended or cancelled for some reason or the other. Newspapers also reported that voting on August 25 at many polling stations had to be suspended off and on due to one incident or the other.

In addition to the violence, the arrangements for voting at most polling stations were haywire. Late arrival and even non- arrival of polling staff, mix up in the voters’ lists, non- existence of voters’ lists, missing names and even missing pages in the voters’ lists, shortage of ballot papers, missing election symbols on ballot papers, lack of basic furniture like tables, chairs, stationery, etc., all added to the disarray at last week’s polls.

Apart from the disorderly arrangements, indiscipline and breaches of electoral laws only compounded the confusion and chaos at the polling stations. The presence of candidates’ supporters canvassing on the premises of the polling stations, voters being given advice inside the polling stations to vote for a certain candidate, the presence of mobile phones inside the polling stations, the use of private buildings as polling stations, etc., were some of the reported irregularities which constituted violations of the code of conduct of the local body polls.

Disorganization was already evident well before polling day. The days in the run-up to the polls last week were a nightmare for commuters and public transporters in many parts of the country. Thousands of commuters were reported to be stranded at bus stands in Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Lahore and the Hyderabad region due to large-scale impoundment of public transport vehicles for polling duty, days before the actual election day.

Three types of photographs were very common in newspapers last week: stranded commuters waiting for public transport at bus stands, impounded coaches and vans idly parked at police compounds, and buses/vans overloaded with commuters sitting on the rooftops and/or clinging onto the sides. Some 40 to 60 per cent of the public transport were reported to have been taken away for the elections.

Couldn’t the authorities have thought of a less disruptive way to transport the polling staff and their paraphernalia?

It seems that we can’t organize any major public event without putting the general public through tremendous inconvenience, be it the March 23 parade, a public address/rally by the president of Pakistan, or the local body elections. Not only the commuters suffered last week, as alternative transport means like taxis and rickshaws availed the opportunity to overcharge, but the transporters too, as the latter were reportedly not sufficiently compensated, if compensated at all, for giving up their vehicles for so many days.

If on the one hand the authorities had succeeded in getting most of the thousands of polling staff to the respective polling stations by this method, they surely must on the other hand have deprived many potential voters from going or reaching the polling stations to cast their vote because of the non-availability of public transport on the roads.

The local elections not only made it difficult for people to reach their offices, workplace and institutions of study for several days last week, but it also disrupted the functioning of certain factories, at least in the Lahore area. According to a report in Dawn, the Ferozepur Road Industries Association complained that its workers could not reach the factories because of the government’s impoundment of transport vehicles.

The local elections not only disrupted businesses but even the working of hospitals. Dawn reported that in one hospital, viz., DHQ Hospital in Faisalabad, the entire staff — medical officers, attendants, surgeons, registrars, specialists and paramedics — were deputed at polling stations situated in different parts of the district, thus causing the hospital to come to a standstill for at least two days. It was not surprising that patients and their relatives staged demonstrations outside the hospital in protest.

There is no doubt that local elections constitute an important aspect in the gradual development of Pakistan’s electoral democracy. This second contest for union council seats, the first being held in 2001, was supposed to have been a more electorally maturing exercise for all concerned — the election administrators, the candidates and the voters.

Unfortunately, however, not only election procedures seem to have deteriorated this time but many candidates do not seem to have developed yet the true sense of campaigning. As for the voters who are always complaining about the poor delivery of government services year in and year out, well, they are the ones who voted them into office.