The people of Punjab voted former prime minister Imran Khan’s party a sweeping victory in the by-elections that had been billed as the game-changer for Pakistan’s unfolding political scenario.
Of the 20 seats up for grab, Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf won 15 while prime minister Shahbaz Sharif’s PML-N, which leads a coalition government in Islamabad, bagged four seats. The remaining one seat went to an independent candidate.
The by-elections were called after a constitutional crisis that rocked the country with the ouster of Imran Khan through a no-confidence vote. The twenty seats fell vacant as per the Pakistani constitution that prohibits switching sides in the Parliament. All the twenty members, elected to the provincial assembly as PTI candidates, had declared their support for the PML-N. The elections were held under the PML-N provincial government amid accusations of misuse of power for political gains in the election. The PML-N rejects the allegations.
Khan, who has been calling for fresh national elections since his April ouster, is a populist leader, whose fame depends on his engaging the previously fence-sitting middle class, healthcare policies, economic management during the pandemic, running a cancer hospital and a university, and his laurels as one of the greatest cricketers of all time.
But Khan has also faced criticism for risking his country’s relationship with the United States with his repeated allegations of a conspiracy that, he alleges, was a factor behind his ouster. He has also harmed his party’s relations with the powerful military establishment with allegations that it engineered his exit by colluding with the PML-N and PPP. The United States has rejected Khan’s allegations as devoid of truth. The military says it has remained neutral and does not interfere in the political process.
However, the landslide margin of PTI’s victory stunned his political opponents, most notably their two other major parties, PML-N and Pakistan Peoples Party, who has faced criticism for running the affairs of the state through dynastic politics and also face several corruption charges in courts.
Although, the PML-N party leaders were quick to concede defeat, the loss of Punjab, once Sharif’s seat of power, has ominous meanings. Not only have the Sharifs lost the chief ministership of Punjab, the center of military and political influence in the country but also face a setback in their narrative that Khan lacked real grassroots support and was selected in the 2018 general election by the military establishment.
The PTI already runs the strategically significant Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and has a massive following in the urban centers of Sindh including Karachi, the country’s commercial hub.
Imran Khan, on the other hand, has called for general elections under a credible Election Commissioner to determine the future governance of the country that has been reeling under economic problems. Pakistan’s currency Rupee has nosedived against the dollar and lost its value amid political uncertainty that has seen people attend the PTI rallies in large numbers.
