Despite hectic efforts to regain the lost glory in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has not been able to improve its position in urban areas of the two provinces as is evident from the last two bye-elections-NA 120, Lahore and NA-04, Peshawar. After the humiliating defeat in NA-120 which the party had set as a test case to evaluate the party's standing in Punjab, the PPP's co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari along with chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari focused attention on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The party's standing in the October 26 bye-election in NA-04 Peshawar was, once again, a humiliation as it stood fourth despite back to back visits by Zardari and Bilawal to Peshawar in a bid to boost the morale of the voters and workers. The party's campaigners blame internal differences within the PPP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter and absence of reorganization of the party at the union council level.
"There was only nominal contribution of the senior provincial leaders in the election campaign and this has been brought to the notice of Asif Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto", said a provincial leader of the party while talking to Business Recorder on condition of anonymity. He said that former federal minister Arbab Alamgir Khan and his wife Asma Alamgir, and other senior provincial leaders did not take an active part in the election campaign due to their differences with the incumbent provincial PPP leadership.
The other factor, he pointed out as being critical in the defeat of the PPP, is that the party workers want Bilawal to lead them instead of Zardari; they want a change in leadership that would indicate that the policies of the father have been abandoned which brought nothing but failure every time in the past four and a half years.
However, talking to Business Recorder, PPP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President Humayyun Khan maintained that by securing fourth position and bagging 13200 votes PPP has improved its position compared to 2013 general elections when it stood sixth by bagging 12031 votes. He pointed out that the PPP increased its votes by 1169 as compared to the previous general elections.
"It was a good achievement as the party improved its position despite the pre-poll rigging by both federal and provincial governments and the use of government machinery to influence the results", he further maintained, adding the PPP was confident that it can further improve its position in the coming general elections.
The trend to overstate achievement and understate their own shortcomings was also followed by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari who on Friday admired the "team-work and hard-work" of the PPP leaders and workers in NA-4 Peshawar by-election despite pre-poll rigging by federal and provincial government machinery.
"Both the PML-N and PTI governments opened up their exchequers and coffers for NA-4 and unleashed state machineries to steal away by-election. New development schemes were conceived and implemented overnight to influence the voters in complete violation of electoral rules", Bilawal said in a statement, adding "despite all odds the PPP workers performed well and he would like to salute them for working hard without having a level-playing field".
PTI's Arbab Amir Ayub was declared the winner by securing 45737 votes while PPP's candidate Asad Gulzar stood fourth by bagging 13200 votes in the polls held on the seat that fell vacant following his father Gulzar Khan's demise. Gulzar Khan won from this constituency on PTI ticket in 2013 general elections by securing 55134 but later developed differences with PTI and following his death his son Asad Gulzar joined PPP.
PTI which had secured 55134 votes in 2013 general election, stood first in the bye-polls by getting 45737 votes, registering a decrease of 9397 votes. PML-N which was enjoying support of Maulana Fazlur Rehman's JUI-F and Aftab Ahmad Khan Shepao's QWP remained third by bagging 24790 votes compared to 2013 general election in which the party bagged 20412 votes.
In 2013, the total votes secured by the candidates of PML-N, JUI-F and QWP were 20412, 12519 and 757 respectively. This implies that the PML-N candidate with the support of the other two parties should have secured 33688 but instead it registered a decline of 8898 votes.
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