AFTER the PML-N successfully defended its NA-120 seat in the by-election on Sunday last, PTI candidate Dr Yasmin Rashid continued the PTI’s tradition of vehemently dismissing election results as a pre-planned rigging.

The animosity between Pakistan’s two premier parties has seldom produced moments of political sportsmanship, and the holier-than-thou attitude of the PTI continued after the by-election results, which saw the PML-N’s KulsoomNawaz inherit the vacated seat of her husband.

Despite the PTI’s defeat, there are a lot of positives to emerge from their recent shortcomings. First, the PTI is gaining popularity in the PML-N’s hub with defeat margins diminishing each time the two parties collide. The PML-N has lost a humongous 32,000 votes since 2013 compared to the PTI’s loss of 5,000.

Second, challenging the PML-N in its Lahore stronghold in a stern test for anyone. The PTI has, however, shown time and again that it it up and ready to face the challenge. Credit to Yasmin Rashid for her door-to-door election campaign that built faith of the people in the constituency to try alternative options if their demands are overlooked by the reigning government.

Whether it was Mr Sharif’s ousting that turned his own people against him, the party’s inefficiency in the constituency, or simply because Kulsoom Nawaz does not possess the same electoral appeal as her husband, the PML-N’s popularity decrease is visible.

For the PTI, having a nemesis in the PML-N constitutes a never-ending political dilemma until and unless the PTI somehow manages to form government of its own in the coming elections. For that, they will have to prepare and campaign because blame games and rigging allegations are too much of a non-issue to waste their time on.

Yeshel Asif

Lahore

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THE voters are responsible for electing their representatives. It is a national duty. That is how democracy works.

So, what is one to make out when two out of three voters do not turnout to cast their votes in NA-120? It effectively means that every vote cast represented three votes instead of one. That is unfair!

Should the Election Commission of Pakistan investigate who did not turn up and why? Maybe not each and every one of those around 200,000, but why in some detail. Is it the electoral roll that is not accurate? Some head must roll on this happening.

Is the lower voters turnout an issue addressed in the recent election reforms?

Maybe our legislatures consider those who shirk their national duty in eligible for voting automatically in the next election. There should be a separate procedure to bring them back to the fold after finding out the reason. Or is there a better way of making eligible voters discharge their duty?

Altaf Noor Ali

Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2017