LAHORE: To the disappointment of his detractors, both within and outside the party, soft-spoken Pervaiz Rashid has come up to the expectations of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by single-handedly running a successful election campaign for Azad Kashmir polls.

The federal information minister with the help of his confidant and political secretary to PM Dr Asif Kirmani countered all personal attacks and propaganda against the Sharifs by heads of their respective parties, namely Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Imran Khan, and stole the show through a landslide victory.

PML-N officials told Dawn that Mr Rashid had, during a briefing for the prime minister about AJK polls a couple of days before, had claimed the party would win 31 out of 41 directly contested seats of the AJK Legislative Assembly.

The unofficial results released so far say the party had clinched 32 seats.

The prime minister and his family were conspicuous by their absence from the AJK political scene though some ticket-holders had been demanding that Mr Sharif should at least once make his appearance there to boost morale of the party workers.

The prime minister gave a free hand to the information minister vis-à-vis election strategy and confined his own role, due to certain factors, to appearing in an electronic media campaign launched just a couple of days before the polls on July 21.

And Mr Rashid made a full use of the opportunity and did not involve any senior PML-N leader, including chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, who holds a considerable sway among Kashmiris, in the campaign.

In the electioneering in various seats of refugees in Punjab too, neither chief minister’s son Hamza Shehbaz nor any other Sharif took part (and eventually the party lost the Lahore seat to the PTI).

His rivals in the PML-N were hoping for a chance to criticize him, like some ‘flaws’ in his media policy, for his solo flight but these hopes dashed to the ground with the landslide victory which has further cemented his position in the party and in the eyes of the party leadership.

His detractors both within and outside the party found solace in the myth that traditionally the party which rules Islamabad wins in AJK polls.

While his colleagues could not speak in the open, the rivals outside the party did.

“Even though traditionally [the] party in power in Islamabad tends to win AJK elections, I would still like to congratulate PML-N for its AJK win,” tweeted PTI chairman Imran Khan.

Jehangir Tareen, another PTI leader, also used the social media to console party activists by comparing number of votes polled by various parties.

“On a more positive note, PTI and MC Alliance won total 5 seats. PML-N votes 689K, PTI/MC 383K, PPP 352K. Remember [it’s] PTI’s 1st election in AJK.”

The PPP has rejected the results alleging rigging. Its Senator and former interior minister Rehman Malik advised party workers in a tweet that they should not lose heart as success and defeat are part of life, and don’t worry this rigging will be exposed soon.

The anti-India rhetoric did not seem to work in the AJK campaign.Farooq Tariq, general secretary of leftist Awami Workers Party, said in his tweet while commenting on election results: “Anti-India rhetoric is not any more saleable commodity. The PPP based its election campaign in AJK on this and failed miserably.”

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2016