THERE’S some tentativeness still in the way the campaign for the local government (LG) elections in Lahore is being conducted. It is as if the participants have not fully come out of the uncertain period during which no one actually knew when, and if, the vote for the local bodies would be organised here.

In the presence of a highly centralised, one-person rule in the province, the local governments were considered a bit of a waste in PML-N circles, even a hurdle to the smooth delivery of development and daily relief to the people. Just as the hopes of a local government in the near future would rise, there would be some point invoked by the government to delay the exercise.

Apart from a desire to not share power with the people’s representatives at the grass roots, there were a few other factors cited in the political debate to explain the PML-N’s reluctance to local governments. There was this very genuine fear that the LG elections would bring out groupings within the ruling party and the consequent cracks would be not easy to fill.

The PML-N’s election offices in the city are reflective of the powers it has long exercised over Lahore.

For instance, many of the families or groups already enjoying ministries at the national or provincial level would want a share in power at the local level. On the other hand, many of the ruling party components who couldn’t be accommodated in government in Islamabad and the province would now want to be compensated, putting ‘undue’ pressure on the PML-N whose able chief minister has been busy in talking Punjab into progress and unmatched prosperity.

The PML-N had done it without the help of any local government ever since Sharif had been helped by Gen Ziaul Haq’s experiments in creating a local-level pool to draw future politicians from. That experiment was proof that once there is a pool of politicians having been taken through the initial stages of politics at the local level it will have in its midst ambitious aspirants who would want to graduate to the next level of governing.

If these are the usual, unavoidable reasons for an incumbent at the provincial level to want to stall the LG system there was a very specific cause that would have encouraged the PML-N to delay local governments in Punjab. The threat was known as Imran Khan and the time the Shahbaz Sharif government has gained with long battles fought in the courts have not in any way diminished the PTI challenge. The point is easily backed by the outcome of the recent by-election in NA-122. The PML-N was able to secure the crucial Lahore seat by a very slim margin and only after a grim fight against the PTI.

It was a kind of a wakeup call for the PML-N, as also a vindication for the age-old formula that requires at least one member of the ‘ruling family’ to be out there among the people. According to some local observers, NA-122 was won largely after Hamza Shahbaz succeeded in wooing the old local groups in localities that were included in the constituency. What now needed to be maintained was a similar kind of affinity with PML-N groups through LG contests in Lahore and throughout Punjab. As simple as that — only no party can be expected to have as many Hamzas for the task of securing something as big and widespread as a full-scale LG election.

The tentativeness is very much there, but it in no way prevents a variety of Muslim Leaguers to display their ware less than 10 days to the election. They are out to match the opponents four-wheeler to four-wheeler, dera for dera. Some have actually been offended enough to have walked over to the PTI camp, which is reasonably well populated but at places maybe lacking in opulence and the sheer determination to take on the might of the Sharifs. This had recently characterised the Aleem Khan campaign against Ayaz Sadiq in NA-122.

The expectation is that the PTI will give the PML-N a tough fight — just as the PML-N would want this opportunity to once and for all establish its dominance over Imran Khan. For the PTI’s promise to yield some results, the party’s LG campaign in Lahore and all over the province will have to be injected with a lot of cash. The PML-N, despite instances where some of its long-silent factions have been found agitating, has so far been able to create the familiar intimidating spectacle of how it dominates the scene.

The PML-N’s election offices in the city are reflective of the powers it has long exercised over Lahore. They have the hustle and bustle of the more resourceful and more influential — as much activity as the month of Muharram can allow. It is a rich display meant to overawe, and it dictates the other side to find its own loud expression — as Aleem Khan managed to do against Ayaz Sadiq.

Away from the arena, the task of promoting austerity as a virtue has fallen on the increasingly delicate shoulders of two parties which once defined the ideological divide in the country: the PPP and Jamaat-i-Islami. The PPP has been very economical at the outset contesting — or actually managing to contest — less than half of the seats. The Jamaat has been vocal against the use of money to woo voters, even when it has failed to resist the temptation of lending candidates — including family members of the top-notch JI leaders — to the rich and resourceful parties, the PML-N and the PTI.

The days when anti-PPP politicians sought guidance and verve and catchy slogans — an ideology — from the JI seems to have passed. The camps have been dismantled. The scenes thrown up by the local election campaign confirms this impression that has been taking shape for a while now. Even now, the people have enough choices in the PML-and PTI.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2015

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