POLITICIANS never learn. What should have been a straightforward walkover for the joint candidate of the PTI and PML-Q after the alliance’s triumph in the Sunday by-poll is no longer a certainty. The run-off election for chief minister of Punjab today has been tainted by allegations of horse-trading as the ruling coalition led by the PML-N makes a last-ditch effort to save the minority Hamza Shehbaz government.

Political horse-trading is not a new phenomenon in Pakistani politics. Starting with the ‘abduction’ of independent lawmakers by the then PML back in 1988 to deny the PPP a chance to muster its majority in the provincial assembly and to get its own candidate elected as chief minister, almost every major political party, including the PTI, has mastered the art — with generous help from the intelligence apparatus.

The way Imran Khan was supported by the agencies that coerced many contestants in Punjab fielded by the PML-N to either quit the race or seek PTI tickets to stay in the competition in the run-up to the 2018 elections is still a fresh memory. More recently, the parties of the ruling coalition have been accused of offering money and rewards to entice several PTI lawmakers to break away, so that the PML-N can retain Punjab and keep its government at the centre secure.

Read: Coalition vows to do all it takes to ‘salvage’ Punjab govt

There were hopes that after being crushed in the by-polls — a major reason for their defeat was the fielding of candidates who had deserted the PTI — the PML-N and its allies would not repeat their mistake of engineering defections. The statements from PML-N leaders conceding their party’s defeat in the by-polls had reinforced hopes that the ugly scenes witnessed during the election of Hamza Shehbaz would not be repeated in the Punjab Assembly this time. Sadly, that does not seem to be happening.

Ideally, the ruling coalition should have asked the provincial government to resign after it became clear that the opposition had regained its majority in the assembly after the by-polls. Short of that, it was expected that the PML-N and its allies would at least keep away from turning their minority into a majority through horse-trading. But its fears of being confined to Islamabad have led PML-N and its coalition partners to take the unsavoury route in their attempt to save the current administration in Punjab.

It will be no service to the cause of democracy if the situation turns violent in today’s session. If democracy is to move forward, the PML-N and its allies must take a step back and refrain from any move that is unethical or that violates the law and Constitution. If they fear that a hostile PTI-PML-Q administration in Pakistan’s most populous province will be a hurdle in the way of implementation of its political and economic agenda, they should hold early elections to seek a fresh mandate.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2022