But in spite of the national appeal of the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League (N) from the Khyber Pass to Sindh, political sources keep their fingers crossed about the final vote.
Both PPP — with arrow as its election symbol — and PML-N with lion have agreed to cooperate with each other though their 15-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy has not converted itself into an election alliance.
The unprecedented combination of the former arch-rivals should normally have overawed any other political force in the country.
But President Pervez Musharraf’s decrees that bar both PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and PML leader Nawaz Sharif from the contest and from ever becoming prime minister again, as well as limitations on political activity, have kept electioneering subdued.
Ms Bhutto has called a meeting of senior party colleagues in Dubai on Saturday to discuss how to fire the campaign and the course of action to be taken if her appeals against the rejection of her nomination papers were also rejected by the appellant tribunals.
Party sources said Amin Fahim, who heads the party’s electoral formation of PPP (Parliamentarians), will be among about 15 leaders attending the Dubai meeting. It might also take a final decision about Ms Bhutto’s plans to return home before the vote even at the risk of being arrested on charges of corruption.
Three of Ms Bhutto’s nominations were rejected by returning officers on the ground she was convicted thrice by special accountability courts for not appearing to contest corruption charges.
Nawaz Sharif’s papers for the National Assembly from Lahore were set to meet a similar fate after initial acceptance. His wife Kulsoom and brother Shahbaz Sharif remain in the contest.
Political sources said that despite bars against Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif, the PPP and PML (N) remain dominant in the campaign at the local level.
Among others, Mian Mohammad Azhar’s PML-Q is the main catalyst of pro-Musharraf platform but, with bicycle as its election symbol, it has yet pedalled in a low profile, except in its pockets of support in Punjab.
Not much headway has yet been made by other perceived pro-Musharraf groupings, such as the five-party National Alliance — headed by former president Farooq Leghari — which becomes the Grand National Alliance with the association of PML-Q.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, an alliance of six religious parties, has yet to prove its metal after a shortened “train march” from Rawalpindi to Lahore.
Both the PPP and PML-N do not seem ready to take much guidance from MMA’s “book” (election symbol) so as not to be seen too close with religious parties, but have promised seat adjustments with some of them.
Former cricket hero Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf, which has chosen cricket bat as its symbol, finds its very hard to play at a pitch he says has been prepared by what he calls “Gujrat mafia” — a blame rejected by Chaudhrys of Gujrat.
At the regional level, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s “kite” seems set to allow little intrusion in Karachi and Hyderabad. Asfandyar Wali Khan’s Awami National Party — “lantern” is its symbol — will have to burn a lot of midnight oil to regain some of popularity it seemed to have lost in the NWFP after it left the ARD last year.