On the surface, there seems to be peace and stability in Pakistan and across the world. But it doesn’t take much to turn the normal situation into a war when there’s a power struggle or fulfillment of a certain goal is at the stake. Exactly the kind of situation was witnessed during yesterday’s Punjab by-polls.
From the polling station to the corridors of power or from destitute’ shanties to political landlords’ lavish drawing rooms, one question was on everyone’s mind; Will Hamza Shahbaz remain the Chief Minister of Punjab after by-elections in 20 constituencies, or will it pave the way for Parvez Elahi to be the head of Punjab?
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, on twitter, urged the masses to remember former premier Imran Khan’s tenure of alleged corruption and bad governances while voting.
In his Twitter message, the Prime Minister accused that the Imran Khan government was involved in economic destruction, helping mafias, depriving citizens of free medicines and buying and selling of government posts all while lawlessness was widespread.
However, one can question whether Prime Minister’s advice to the people to vote against Imran Khan on the day of by-elections was a violation of ECP’s code of conduct as the period of election campaign was come to a close on July 15 around midnight.
This year has seen a lot of new things that the country’s political history never witnessed before. For example, not letting Imran Khan completing his 5 years may not be something new, but he was ousted from the PM office by a successful no confidence motion in an apparent democratic way.
Similarly, for the first time in the history of the country, the Deputy Speaker rejected the motion for no confidence by giving a ruling. Subsequently, the SC rejected the speaker’s ruling, restoring the assembly that led to successful no confidence motion. This too, never happened before in the country’s sketchy democratic past.
Shahbaz Sharif, who hadn’t had a chance of becoming the PM of the country, had been made PM for the first time. And, then came the moment when the country saw the son becoming Chief Minister of Punjab after his father had been throned in Islamabad.
Hamza Shehbaz was the first Chief Minister of Punjab in the history of the country, who had to endure a record period for the swearing-in ceremony and even when he got the chief Minister-ship, the power struggle for the cabinet members and the seat of the Governor of Punjab kept going on.
If the Punjab by-polls’ scale tilted toward PTI , Parvez Elahi may become the new Chief Minister of Punjab, and that would be, by all means, a heavy blow to the current political setup.
In hindsight, from Punjab to Islamabad, a war has been waged for just the seat of Chief Minister, and it is not over yet.
