THE PTI politicians are reporting the ‘positives’ from the by-election held on Oct 14. It will be no surprise, however, if the secrets of their much flaunted satisfaction escape a large number of citizens. It is just the initial phase of a PTI government in power, a period where Prime Minister Imran Khan is seeking to set the direction for his rule. The Oct 14 by-election, in which the PTI, among other losses, failed to retain two of the seats that were won by Mr Khan himself in the July 25 general polls, is by no means a an occurrence that can be easily ignored. It represents an early reminder to the PTI about how to run itself, and its politics. The impact of the by-poll setback is multiplied by the fact that it came close on the heels of some very difficult steps that the government said it was forced to take, such as the decision to go to the IMF for a bailout package. The PTI’s opponents are surely going to project the negative trends thrown up at crucial points of the national map courtesy of the Oct 14 by-election as some kind of spontaneous public reaction to Imran Khan’s coming to power.

The PTI’s opponents are various, depending on which province we are talking about. But what is quite remarkable is that many of them, if not all, appear to have gained on the Imran Khan party of change in this by-poll. The ANP and MMA have something to be happy about now after they were routed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the PTI in the July general vote. In Punjab, the PML-N looks unbroken and solid, scoring victories in the by-polls over the PTI, in Lahore, in Faisalabad and in Attock, along with other areas. This performance by the PML-N will add to its reputation as being the most efficient election-contesting machine. However, it places a big question mark over the PTI, which in many places — such as NA-131 in Lahore where Khawaja Saad Rafiq of the PML-N won — failed to perform the very basic election chore of wooing voters to the polling stations on the important day. There might have been so many other factors. But a little more effort on polling day could have saved PTI politicians some of the explanations on offer. Perhaps those at the helm at the PTI were still too busy celebrating the July ‘revolution’.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2018