KARACHI, Sept 16: A different kind of electioneering is taking place in the country which has no resemblance with what had been witnessed during elections in the past.
Looking at the political landscape, it appears to be a completely confusing situation with a limited choice for the voters who have always been a victim of circumstances, not of their own making.
Apparently, it looks as though it were a fight between parties supporting and opposing the regime, but the battleline is not clearly drawn.
Neither the pro-regime parties have presented themselves as a single solid bloc, united with a common cause, nor the forces opposing the regime have demonstrated their solidarity with a mass appeal.
As of now the political scenario presents a confused situation where a variety of parties with divergent ideas and views are vying with one another to get their share of votes.
In fact, none of these forces have any impressive programme for a people who have been betrayed by the same parties and leaders time and again.
The common man rightly feels that barring a few novices, nothing has changed in the political arena, so far as the main characters are concerned.
In such a situation the voter is left with a limited choice: either he should vote fro the regime-backed parties or for the same set of parties which betrayed them in the past over and over again.
Ask the man-in-the-street his opinion about the coming election, he will say that it is being fought over non-issues and the only objective of the exercise is power.
It is true that most of the parties, directly or indirectly, have accepted the legitimacy of the military regime: first, by participating in the local bodies elections and now by taking part in the next month’s general elections under the rules framed by the regime.
In the present circumstances what one can expect, or what grand programmes can the PPP or the PML (Nawaz) or any other party unfurl?
Although the principal issue, if at all there is any before the electorate, is whether the military takeover was justified. It is around this that the battleline seems to have been drawn.
But unfortunately the point is not being over-stressed even by the PML (N) because it would annoy the army leadership and create further problems for the party.
The dismissal of PPP and PML governments twice on charges of corruption and misgovernance has left the image of the two parties pretty battered.
However, as the election date draws closer, both the PPP and the PML (N) have been trying to recover a good deal of the lost ground by attacking the blunders being committed by the regime, forcing political analysts to say that the regime in all likelihood will take the wind out of the propaganda that elections may be postponed. This “prediction-type” propaganda has been resorted to by politicians who see little possibility or no possibility at all to win the elections.
Critics derive much of their cynicism from the fact that the voter has not much to choose between candidates of various parties.
By and large the same people are running for office, only their names are different in some cases. It has, however, nothing to do with the peculiarities of this general elections.
Gone are the days of a polarized atmosphere when the PPP resorted to radical populism in politics and became a symbol of democracy, at least to the gullible masses.
However, the party shifted its position from the left-of-centre to the centre proper later. True, in social terms its position on various issues is more “liberal” than that of the PML.
But the PP and the PML (N) appear nearly identical in political terms. On foreign, economic and defence matters their views, to the extent that either has any, are about the same.
Considering all that has been discussed above, electioneering this time has so far remained a dull and tame affair.