June 21, 2015: Hamza Shahbaz convenes a party meeting to discuss the PML-N’s local government preparations
June 21, 2015: Hamza Shahbaz convenes a party meeting to discuss the PML-N’s local government preparations

It’s a slow start for political parties in Punjab: local body elections in the province are scheduled on September 20, but the hot summers and the prolonged delimitation process and are already dampening all impetus for the grass-root electoral bout.

Most are awaiting the final list of constituencies that will be issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on July 28, after objections to the demarcations it has carried out with the help of the Punjab government have all been disposed of. Till then, the selection or nomination of candidates will remain on hold, confining the process to identifying potential winners.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has notified Hamza Shahbaz, the son of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, as the convener of the Lahore district committee to seek recommendations from the party cadre about potential candidates. Party MPs as well as district and provincial level office-bearers are members of the body, which held its maiden meeting on June 21.


Polling preparations remains sluggish on account of the blazing heat and a prolonged delimitation process


Conveners for the other districts are yet to be named by the PML-N. A senior party leader, however, claims that all district committees will report to Hamza, who has earned his name as a good strategist by winning most by-polls in Punjab.

On the other hand is the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the main opposition party, which is passing through another re-organisation phase; all its party organisations currently stand dissolved under an order of the party’s election commission.

And yet, the PTI is all set to try a new system of awarding tickets by forming committees at a provincial constituency level. The MPA or the ticket-holder who had secured at least 20 per cent of the polled votes in the last general election will head the body. With the help of “serious” candidates, he/she will recommend nominees at union council level and will be held accountable for the good, or bad, results.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which until the emergence of the PTI was the second largest party in Punjab, held a meeting of district leaders on June 16 in Lahore to decide fielding maximum candidates in the elections, hoping that the ticket-holders would also help “re-activate” and “re-energise” the party.


While the PML-N argues that [phase-wise polling]could help avoid KP-like violence during local government polls, both the PTI and JI fear that the government will use this tactic to maximally manipulate the elections and further delay formation of local governments.


PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-Chairperson Asif Zardari have visited Punjab to give what provincial general secretary Tanveer Ashraf Kaira describes as a boost to the party’s local body endeavours. The father-son duo will meet district-level leaders to discuss strategies for the local polls, which Kaira asserts will become the basis for good performance in general election.

Jamaat-i-Islami’s Dr Waseem Akhtar and PML-Q’s Chaudhry Zaheer also believe that the true election atmosphere will develop and candidates will be decided only after the ECP finalises the constituencies.

Presently, they say, they have notified their respective bodies to look for suitable candidates besides getting voter lists. Iftar parties will provide enough chance in this hot season to the potential candidates to approach their electorates, they assert.

Delimitation blues

The PTI and other opposition parties are critical of the use of revenue department officials by the ECP for delimitation, alleging it has helped the ruling PML-N manipulate the process and get the demarcations of its choice. Former Punjab PTI president Ijaz Chaudhry terms it pre-poll rigging, as the party is challenging the delimitations in almost each district.


About the chances of the opposition parties to win against the government-backed nominees, Kaira says that they will benefit from the division of the union councils into wards.


Quoting an example of the “disconnect” in constituencies in his home district Gujrat, PPP’s Kaira also claims that adjacent villages have been excluded to break the connection among areas of a constituency.

Both the PPP and JI, however acknowledge that as the ECP lacks manpower, it has been left with no choice but to use the provincial officialdom for demarcation process. Dr Akhtar is optimistic that repeated local polls will enable the ECP to have a complete basic revenue record and know-how for future delimitations.

Polls in phases

The opposition parties are divided on the provincial government’s intentions of recommending to the ECP that local polls be held phase-wise. While the PML-N argues that this could help avoid Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-like violence during local government polls that claimed the lives of over two dozen people, both the PTI and JI fear that the government will use this tactic to maximally manipulate the elections and further delay formation of local governments.

Ijaz Chaudhry recalls that the Musharraf regime had conducted its first local elections in phases and the process had taken around two years. “It means that local governments are not going to start functioning during the PML-N tenure, which will remain in power for three more years,” he says.

The PPP, however, differs on suggestions that the PML-N will delay elections “The PML-N considers itself to be at the peak of its popularity graph, and they believe that it is time to cash this popularity,” says Kaira.

About the chances of the opposition parties to win against the government-backed nominees, Kaira says that they will benefit from the division of the union councils into wards. “The comparatively smaller constituencies have ensured the role of personal performance or the public relations of a candidate in overcoming the voters’ psyche of voting for government-backed candidates.”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, June 28th, 2015

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