Comparison between the Political Stars

In its 65 years of constant struggling, Pakistan has been molded under different mind frames; from Jinnah to Asif Ali Zardari. A lot of ups and downs have havocked the national environment; military’s intervention, democratic rules etc. and now it’s the time again when people would elect the next government, or as one would say ‘5 year party tenure’. Let us look at what major options are there for the masses of Pakistan:

1.      Nawaz  Sharif and PML-N:

Born on 25 December 1949, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is an important politician in Pakistani history. He is a steel mill industrialist, served as Pakistani Prime Minister for two times, first from November 1990 to July 1993 and second time from February 1997 until chief of army staff stepped in the country and forcefully ended Nawaz Sharif’s government on 12^th of October 1999. Currently he is the president of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) which is considered as one of Pakistan’s most influential and largest traditional political party. He is also the owner of Ittefaq group, a leading steel mill corporation and he is also considered one of the wealthiest industrialists of Pakistan.

Looking at his political carrier Nawaz got political fame in Zia-ul-Haq’s era and was supported by the Governor of Punjab, General Ghulam Jilani Khan. He flourished as the chief minister by Zia in 1985 and remained at that post till Zia’s death after that Benazir Bhutto was elected as the Prime Minister in 1988 and Sharif appeared as the primary opposition leader from Pakistan Muslim League. When Benazir was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990, Sharif was elected as the Prime Minister and it was his first experience at this seat.

2.      Imran Khan and PTI:

Considered as one of the strong contenders in the upcoming general elections of 2013, Imran Khan and Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf are shaping out to be a force to be reckoned with. Being termed as the Leader of the Youth, Imran Khan has not only gained tremendous popularity amongst the youngsters but is also being viewed as the Savior of Pakistan. Since the party’s creation in 1996, Khan and his fellow party members will be looking for their first official victory. Though the party mostly comprises of political figures who had previously served in the government as representatives of other parties, Imran Khan vows to remove all injustice and darkness from with our national system. With just the experience of organizing and leading a cricket team towards eternal glory, this would be his first taste of the big league, with the exception that he makes it that far.

3.      Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain and PML-Q

Getting a 5 year tenure under military intervention, Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-E-Azam group tends to be the grooming room for names that need no introduction. Coming-in to form the government from 2002-2007, the party that once won 26% of the total seats could not even manage 50 seats during the next elections. Still, analyst see that tenure as a growing period for the economy of Pakistan, and regard to it as a benchmark. One name that stands out amongst the members is of Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain. He might not be the most remembered Ex-Prime Minister; stepping down in favor of his fellow party member Shaukat Aziz, Shujaat Hussain continues to be an influential political figure in Pakistani Politics. Currently, he remained a close ally of both the Prime Minister and President.

4.      Asif Ali Zardari and PPP

Regarded as the life achievement of the Zulifqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan Peoples’ Party is no stranger to the masses. With the death of Benazir Bhutto, possibly the last of the influential figure in the family, the course now rest within the hands of her husband Asif Ali Zardari, Ex-President of Pakistan. Whatever the circumstances might be, he emerged from behind the front line and took oath to lead both the party and the nation on a road towards prosperity. To a naked eye, the country still stands stranded, surrounded with more crises, fighting more enemies than before, and yet the rulers claim they couldn’t have done a better job?, ironic.

5.      Pervez Musharraf and APML

Created in reference to the historical political party of Muslims in India, All India Muslim League; All Pakistan Muslim League was established in 2010 by the former President of Pakistan General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf. The party itself has brief notes that need to be highlighted, but a lot can be said of its founder. The controversial 8 year Military rule of Musharraf has seen many up’s and down’s. The political sphere, the financial status, international relations, national crises; every chapter of the Nation was written with the hands of a military dictator. Some say the things people saw under that time rule were in themselves ‘eye-openers’; yet there are people who support every single decision that he made. His return was much anticipated as a huge crowd was anxiously waiting for him to step-back in the Political field and ‘make things right’.

By Jaffer Abbas

Election Commission of Pakistan has Awakened for General Elections 2013

ECP had been previously working on the patterns specified at the time of its investiture. But recently ECP got ignited due to the allegation of forgeries in the election processes for the nominations. It has sharpened its teeth by tailoring the code of conduct for stringent execution of Election procedures.

The document has been filed containing more or less 40 summits with mutual consent of political parties and the commission. It anchored the over expenditures of political parties by directing all contesting candidates to use the money from their separate account of maximum credit limit 1.5 million. They are not supposed to spend money other than that account. Submission of daily details of expenses at the end of every week till closing stages of elections campaigns is made essential. Violators will be sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment and fine of PKR 5000. Although credit limit was defined previously for campaigns but ECP showed a bit lavish attitude in surveillance.

Moreover, long convoys, wall chalking and party flags at public places are banned by the commission. Entitlements of these facilities will only be allowed under the written legal documentation, approved by the local authorities. Additional Secretary, M. Afzal Khan told media that the returning officers (RO’s) are authorized to cancel the nomination papers of the candidates if they show off weapons or open fire in air after the submission of papers. Except meetings, laud speakers are also banned to be used by the parties. Banners and posters of specified length & width are allowed for the election campaigns so that the unnecessary agitation in people can be refrained. Furthermore, defined boundaries of 400-450 yards radius of polling station for contesting candidates have been allowed by the commission. In addition, Seat Reservation is defined on the basis of prioritization of women and non-Muslims in the Assemblies so for this purpose ECP ensured the submission of nomination lists to the commission and so and so forth.

Although ECP is striving to fix the loop holes in the system to conduct fair general elections in the country. But what about the political influences and pressures by insiders? What about the strict imposition of penalties by authorities? So, Still there are certain amendments yet to be made in the law enforcement policies so that the flawless implementation of reforms can take place.

By Saba Tariq

PPP's Five Year Tenure Accomplished

Democracy has remained a tough challenge for Pakistan since its birth. Every time the elected government has been able to acquire the powers yet failed to complete its tenure as it was seized by the military forces four times. However, first time of history, a democratically elected government was able to complete its tenure of five years. That is an achievement but this alone is not enough, let’s see how successful have the government been.

The major problems that were highlighted by this government included

·         Fuel crisis

The prices of CNG, petrol and high speed diesel were increased to sky-high. The prices of CNG were increased from Rs.37 per kg to Rs.80.94 per kg. Currently, it has been decreased to 65.78 per kg with the availability for only 3 days from Friday to Monday morning. The prices of petrol have rose to Rs.97.10 in August 2012 which was Rs.62.81 per litre in April 2008. Currently, it is recorded to be Rs. 103.6. Prices of High Speed Diesel surged from Rs 44.13 per litre to Rs. 160.60. While, today it is available for Rs. 113.56 per litre.

·         Commodity crisis

The prices of the consumer goods also increased. The food items that were available at lower prices rose so much that a person belonging to lower-middle class could not afford it.  The price of flour (atta) increased from Rs.16 to 40-45 per kg, Basmati (Premium quality) from Rs. 90 to Rs. 100-105 per kg averagely, poultry from Rs. 112 to Rs. 190-200 per kg and beef (with bones) from Rs. 170 to Rs. 260-280 per kg, so on and so forth. Not only this, the prices of pulses, fruits and vegetables also increased rapidly with the passing days.

·         Law and order

The PPP government failed to maintain the law and order, out of all the things they have successfully failed to manage let’s just discuss the law and order in Karachi and Baluchistan. Over the last five years, above 9000 people were killed in Karachi under MQM/PPP and all government could do was appoint an interior minister to sign up a flier program to travel to and fro from Karachi to London “making peace” . In case of Baluchistan, a package was designed for the loyalists. The PPP government they didn’t even let their CM (CM Raisani) to stay in Quetta longer than a week every month and likewise, the package that was formulated never left Islamabad and get to Quetta.

·         Security issues

Pakistan has been fighting a war of terror on the borders ever since its birth. Not only this, the target killings and sectarian killings that were two different things are now one of the same things. Sectarian killings took place not only in Karachi but also in Baluchistan, also not to forget the Shia massacres. And unfortunately, the government turned a deaf ear to it as nothing is done to help end it except for passing an anti-terrorism bill which was not implemented.

The PPP`s tenure has not been all about sunshine and butterflies. However, five year tenure is too short to correct problems that having been coming along all these years after the independence.

By Maham Tariq

Imran Khan, PTI, General Elections 2013

IMRAN KHAN, PTI GENERAL, ELECTIONS 2013

            Considered as one of the strong contenders in the upcoming general elections of 2013, Imran Khan and Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf are shaping out to be the next in line to form the government. Being termed as the Leader of the Youth, Imran Khan has not only gained tremendous popularity amongst the youngsters but is also being viewed as the Savior of Pakistan. According to a recent survey, this year’s electoral poll, 68% of the total registered voters are under 35 years of age. Now, some may consider this fact as the game changer, but only time will tell whether such facts are just there to create hype amongst the masses or not.

            Imran Khan, along with his PIT will be looking for their first official victory since their creation in 1996 and their recent rally might give them exactly that. The rally itself was the talk of the town not only because of the massive crowd that were present; around 2 million people, but also because of the promises that the fearless founder of PTI made to the public. Vowing to build a ‘new and better Pakistan’, he stated that he would never leave his nation and would keep all his assets where the people could see them, he pledged that he would establish supremacy of the law; not to indulge in nepotism or misuse his right of authority, he guaranteed the protection of the taxpayer’s money, to be honest and supporter of the masses and to wage ‘jihad’ against tyranny and injustice in all forums of the world.

            It seems very obvious that the party lacks financial support to enter with a ‘bang’; whereas others are focusing on ‘advertisements and mass media promotions’ to gain attention. The only promotional activity that he is concerned about is speaking to the masses directly, interacting with the nation fearlessly and speaking in the face of opposition boldly. His recent statements on Pak-US relationship has highlighted the fact that for once the nation would not live under the America’s way of life. In Gallup’s most recent polls, 92% of Pakistanis disapprove of the current U.S. policy towards their country. Not to mention the disapproval for the drone strikes in the Tribal regions, the ‘act of eliminating’ Taliban from the region and the foreign aid that seems to be promoting corruption in the country. Imran khan said, “Unfortunately, aid has been a curse for Pakistan. It is not helping the people, it is disappearing in corruption. If we have aid which keeps feeding these governments, it’s propping them up. If we don’t have aid we will be forced to make the reforms and stand on our own feet”. Addressing the issue of suicide bombers, he said, “Unless we get out of this partnership with the United States, hard core nucleus of militancy will continue to use it (Jihad) as a motivational tool for preparing suicide bombers.” Unlike the previous leaders, Khan is open to criticize the American policies and treat it with tough love. The upcoming elections could prove to be very important not just Pakistan, but America as well; if the relations continue to go in the direction that they are now, any sort of support for America will become the kiss of death for Pakistani politicians, leaving America in much worse position than it is already in.

            Many a times, Imran Khan has restated his position that the PTI would not enter into an electoral alliance with any party during or after the elections; total victory, however, would come as a big surprise. Winning 272 seats would be considered remarkable for a party that mainly has the youth as the backbone. Seeing that the country has a dismal election turnout percentage that ranges between 32%-36%, victory for the PTI will largely depend on the youth turnout that can be brought together, the extent of their power will be determined by their ability to maximize this turnout rate. A more conservative number could leave Imran Khan’s party as 'kingmakers' in a hung parliament, allowing them to form a government with one of the other major parties. This would, nonetheless, represent a huge move forward for the party, though not the outright victory that Khan expects.