LAHORE: The Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT) on Monday concluded its campaign with its chief Ehsan Bari hoping to win something between five and 10 per cent seats from among the 265 it is contesting for in tomorrow’s elections.

Saifullah Khalid, chief of the Milli Muslim League (MML), which ran the campaign and provided financial and human muscle to the two-party alliance, is, however, reluctant to predict percentage of the win: “We are a new party and have no history of a committed vote bank. Thus, it is hard to claim anything as far as final result goes. But we certainly have high hopes.”

The MML, which was denied registration by the Election Commission of Pakistan, joined the little-known AAT and used its election symbol of ‘chair’ to contest the elections.

Khalid, however, did not see any party being favoured, as generally alleged. “Only those parties, which are suffering, either on account of accountability or vote bank, are raising such accusations. The PML-N and PPP have their own corruption to defend and the Jamaat-i-Islami is growing weaker by the day. All of them are out to malign the process and make elections controversial. Otherwise, everything has gone well,” he insisted.

Ehsan Bari, who provided the electoral platform and election symbol to the MML, on his part thinks that “favours” were being showered on one party and others were suffering. “It is so obvious that it is hard to miss. However, it may not make much of a difference on D-Day,” he claimed.

As far as election preparation, hustings and final results were concerned, Bari said it was all done in haste as there was no time for scrutiny, which normally should have been done. But still, the alliance is hoping to win anything between five to 10pc of the seats it is contesting for.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2018