Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) has emerged victorious in the hotly contested NA-120 by elections. The seat was left vacant after the disqualification of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. According to the results, PMLN’s candidate Kulsoom Nawaz received 61,254 votes while Dr. Yasmin Rashid got 47,066 votes from the 220 polling stations in the constituency. Kusloom Nawaz who was absent from the campaign due to her ill health relied on the campaign run by her daughter Maryam Nawaz.
The election was being portrayed by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz as a referendum regarding the ouster of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The party had repeatedly claimed its dissatisfaction over the Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case and had vowed to take the matter to the ‘public’s court’. The victory will indeed be used by the ruling party as a sign that people believe that Nawaz Sharif wasn’t ‘justly’ removed. However, it must be kept in mind that NA-120 has always been the stronghold of the ruling party, in the general elections 2013 Nawaz Sharif won from the constituency with a lead of around forty-thousand. Moreover the campaign was fully backed by the state machinery, an allegation leveled by the opposition parties and it is also a well known fact that ruling government’s rarely faces much trouble in winning seats in by elections. So the rulings party’s claim of victory in ‘public’s court’ is fat fetched. Winning by a reduced margin in one of your strongest constituency while being in the government should actually be concerning. The election however has launched Maryam Nawaz to national politics and she has passed the first test, albeit a rather easy test. The strong contest put up by PTI’s Dr Yasmin must be a cause of worry for the ruling party.
Another talking point from the NA-120 by elections was the emergence of two right wing parties who have received decent amount of votes. One of them was the Milli Muslim League who wasn’t allowed to contest the election but its candidate Sheikh Yaqoob did take part in the election as an independent candidate securing around six thousand votes, another candidate was Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s Labaik Ya Rasool (LYR) party. How the introduction of these new right wing religious parties will affect the next general elections is a bit early to predict but their entrance has raised some serious concerns too.
Finally the election proved to be an embarrassing affairs for the once might Pakistan People’s Party with its candidate failing to put even a semblance of a contest for third place.
PMLN’s assertion of NA-120 being a referendum on Sharif’s ouster indirectly maligns institutes.
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