Pakistan In Poll Mode As Imran Fights A Losing Battle

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf is trying to discredit Sharif to prevent him from recapturing power, though it is generally believed that the ruling PML(N) will win a majority of the seats in the upcoming polls

- Syed Nooruzzaman

Parliamentary elections in Pakistan are more than a year away (any time within three months after June 5, 2018), but the country of around 19 crore people appears to be in poll mode now. Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has launched a major drive to discredit Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with a view to preventing him from recapturing power, though it is generally believed that the ruling PML(N) will win a majority of the seats in Pakistan’s National Assembly, which has 342 seats in all, but only 272 are filled through direct elections. Ten seats are reserved for religious minorities and 60 are for women, to be filled by way of proportional representation among the recognised parties winning more than 5 per cent of the votes cast.

In an interview with the popular Geo news channel, former President and exarmy chief Gen Pervez Musharraf has claimed that Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League or PML(N) for short and the People’s Party of Pakistan (PPP) led by slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto’s son Bilawal and her husband Asif Ali Zardari will win most of the seats in the coming elections. Chances are that Nawaz Sharif will be back to power again despite massive corruption charges against him highlighted by cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan.

The wily ex-General expressed the view that “there was a 90 per cent chance that the PPP and the PML(N) will win the elections from their traditional strongholds, including from possibly KP (Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, the erstwhile North-West Frontier Province), if a third force is not formed to mount a challenge. Imran Khan alone cannot defeat the PML(N) and the PPP because he has no plan.”