January 16, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 06, 1429

TAXILA, Jan 15: The ongoing electricity and gas loadshedding coupled with the atta crisis will certainly tilt the balance in favour of the opposition parties in the upcoming general elections, local political observers say.

The prolong electricity outages have adversely affected the domestic, commercial and official activities in Taxila and Wah Cantonment, while the low gas pressure especially in the evening has multiplied the worries of the consumers.

People are pointing fingers not only at the caretaker setup but also at the previous government especially Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q).

With flour, power and gas crises and deteriorating law and order situation, the former ruling party runs the risk of its election slogan of ‘five-year of model development’ boomeranging on it, said the observers.

But on the other hand, party leaders, who do concede that circumstances are not favourable for them, are not ready to accept that the prevailing situation would affect the election results.

The PML-Q ran a massive media campaign prior to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto basing it exclusively on, what it called, “half a decade of massive development.” Of late, it has relaunched efforts to recast itself in a role of “model of development and financial management.”

But political analysts are of the view that the party would face hard time convincing its voters on the face of deepening socio-economic crises.

They say making a few roads here and there and constructing buildings can hardly be taken as a massive development. These are normal things and are part of every annual development plan of any government. They say that the elections would be held on a national agenda, because the country is facing crisis in all sectors, be it power, flour, gas or law and order.

When contacted, a PML-Q leader said the party would educate its candidates about countering what he said the opposition’s propaganda on these issues. “The crises may affect the overall image of the party but their effects can be avoided by constantly reminding people that the party served them better for five years.” On the other hand, the leaders and candidates of the opposition parties including PML (N) and PPP in their public meetings are exploiting the situation in their favour.

Crises created to divert public attention: The government has deliberately created the crises of flour, electricity and gas to divert people’s attention from issues of national importance especially the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

This was stated by Zafar Iqbal Hashmi, PPP additional secretary information Rawalpindi district, while taking to mediapersons here on Tuesday.

“The Q League plans to rig the forthcoming polls through the local government functionaries especially the revenue and education departments.”

He said the recent terrorist incidents in Lahore and Karachi might be an attempt to pave the way for further postponement of the February 18 elections. He, however, said the PPP would resist such a move at every cost.

He accused the government of issuing fake statements regarding stability of the economy, adding the skyrocketing prices of daily-use items belied the government’s claims.

“The gas crisis has been created to benefit oil companies and their business associates to ruin the CNG industry.” he added.