The Jhang district remained a scene of last-minute persuasions to switch electoral affiliations a day before the election. Under the election rules, the candidates are forbidden to campaign 48 hours before the general election, but there seemed to be no let up in their canvassing.
Running along side the unofficial campaigning were allegations of pre-poll rigging, hurled by the PPP candidates at the district government of the PML-Q, headed by Nazim Sultan Hameed, the caretaker of the revered Sufi saint Sultan Bahu’s shrine.
Ali Hassan Qazi, contesting for the national and provincial assembly seats, Zafar Abbas Tiwana (PP-77) and Syeda Abida Hussain (NA-88, Shah Jewna), candidates for the People’s Party, accused the district government of mobilising state machinery to ensure the PML-Q’s guaranteed success in the polls.
Procedures adopted to overpower were registration of false FIRs against supporters of the PPP, removal of campaign banners in Jhang and Chiniot, and a quick commencement of development work since the announcement of the election schedule in 2007.
Sardarzada Zulfikar Ali Shah, the Chiniot tehsil nazim, whose uncle Muhammad Tahir Shah is contesting from NA-86 on the PML-Q ticket, was surprised at these accusations, calling them unwarranted and a traditional ploy of opposing candidates. A few days ago election observers of the European Union met Zulfikar Shah who took them around Chiniot and adjoining areas to review polling arrangements, including opposition’s recriminations of pre-poll rigging raging through Jhang.
“The European Union team went satisfied. How can the PPP candidates and others challenge an independent observer team’s analysis? These charges levelled against the district government and people like me are not true. Candidates contesting from Jhang are closely following each other. It’s difficult to determine who will win. I strongly deny these charges of rigging and can support my claim through the impressions of the EU observers,” defended Mr Shah.
A credible defence by the tehsil nazim calls into question the removal of Syeda Abida Hussain’s campaign banners from the city of Jhang on the orders of the district nazim whose brother Nazir Sultan and son-in-law Mehboob Sultan are contesting from NA-91 and NA-90, respectively.
“The police have been instructed to remove Syeda Abida Hussain’s posters and flex signs. We have reports of Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat filing false FIRs against the PPP supporters to force their families to vote in his favour,” accused PPP’s Ali Hassan Qazi (PP-73). Similar allegations could be heard from the camp of Zafar Abbas Tiwana, contesting on PPP’s ticket from PP-77. “I wonder how else would you define rigging if using the police to coerce people isn’t?” asked Mr Tiwana.
A different perspective of foul play could be heard from the supporters of PML-Q’s Muhammad Tahir Shah, NA-86. The affable looking Tahir Shah, a former MNA in the previous government, is seriously concerned about the amount of money being spent by his opponent Enayat Ali Shah of the PPP. The PPP candidate from NA-86 has rented a huge fleet of vehicles -– a challenge weakly matched by Mr Tahir Shah’s small number — to transport voters to polling booths on the election day.
“The elections are increasingly becoming financial indicators of who can spend the most. Mine is an agrarian family and can’t match the capital assets of Enayat Ali Shah and Qaiser Sheikh. My vote bank comes from the people who’ve known my family and the development work we’ve done in the area.”
The Jhang district has six National Assembly seats and the constituency of NA-86 (Chiniot city and Saddar) has seen a fierce contest between Sheikh Samlanas and Shah Daultanas, two major offshoots of the Bokhari Sayeds living in this area for more than four centuries with Samlanas based in Thathi Garbi and Shah Daultanas in Rajoa Saadaat.
The 2008 electoral prognosis for the district is signalling a different pattern than the previous (2002) general election. In the city of Chiniot, Ms Benazir Bhutto’s assassination as well as the unprecedented amount of money being spent by PPP candidate Enayat Shah and Qaiser Sheikh (an independent) is tilting the vote bank in the PPP’s favour, challenged to some degree by the Sheikh community and Mr Tahir Shah’s family’s influence.
“Since the time the PPP was created my family has been behind Bhutto Sahib. We will continue to support them because it is the only party which speaks for the deprived class,” said Saeed Ahmed, a professor at the Teacher’s Training Centre in Chiniot. The rest of the city is also emotionally charged since Ms Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
“The compassionate factor linked to Mohtarma Benazir’s assassination gives a definite edge to the PPP in these elections, but the people of Jhang are extremely politically savvy and have an independent mind.
I think the Sheikh biradari and the PPP supporters will see a tough contest,” predicted Q.A. Bokhari, Dawn’s Jhang correspondent.