Daily Times

The 11th day of May in the year 2013 came to be a momentous day in this country’s contemporary history. Elections were scheduled to be held on that day. For more than a month before that event was to take place, politicians, media barons, and leading men and women in civil society had been urging their fellow citizens to come out, go to the relevant polling station, and vote for the candidate and party of their choice, and they did so. Nearly 60 percent of the eligible voters went out and cast their ballots. This was a larger voter turnout than any witnessed in a recent election.

The voters gave Nawaz Sharif and his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), a spectacular victory. They emerged as the largest single group in the National Assembly. Having taken their share of seats for women and the minorities they ended up with about 220 places, which would enable them to form a government after recruiting a few of the independents and other aspirants who would want to be noted for their placement on the winning side. Even before the new assembly had been called to session Mr Sharif was being referred to as the next prime minister. Domestic and foreign dignitaries including President Barack Obama, Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India sent him felicitations, messages of good will and expressions of their desire to work with him to their mutual advantage.

Mr Sharif says and many of his listeners believe that he will not function this time as he did during his two terms in the 1990s. He does not have the bluster and impetuousness that he manifested then. Seven years of exile in Jeddah and London would seem to have given him the incentive and the opportunity for introspection and learn from his earlier mistakes. His speech and conduct now possess poise, measure, balance, and moderation. He is taking the craft of politics seriously and has been working hard to enhance his effectiveness. He has been out meeting political notables and speaking to the ordinary folks in public meetings all over the country. He has attained visibility and name recognition in all of the four provinces. He is expected to be a good prime minister.

In Pakistani elections the winners will assert that all went well whereas the losers will denounce the whole exercise as fraudulent. Commentators who disapprove of the PML-N have been speaking in this vein. Dr Danish, who hosts a notable programme on a private TV channel, has been saying that the election violated constitutional requirements and proprieties from beginning to the end. The Election Commission, he says, was appointed improperly; the nomination papers disregarded articles 62 and 63 of the constitution as a result of which all kinds of undesirable candidates were allowed to contest; and that the voting had scandalously been rigged. Others maintain, however, that while irregularities were committed in certain isolated cases the great majority of contests were won fair and square. The authenticity of the election thus remains controversial.

Certain peculiarities of the election under discussion should be noted. Next to the PML-N the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) received the largest number of votes but it obtained only 46 seats in the National Assembly including its share of those allocated to women and minorities. It is considerably less than the number it was expected to win. In contrast the Pakistan People’s Party has won 40 seats. Considering the number of votes it has received we will have to say that the PTI has emerged from the election as the second most important party in the country. Note also that it claims that as many as 20 of the seats that should have been placed to its credit have been stolen through rigging engineered by functionaries who managed the electoral process. Many observers seem to be of the view that rigging on a fairly large scale did take place. If that is indeed the case the PML-N has to have been its main beneficiary.

Are we then to say that agents working for Mr Sharif manipulated the election? That cannot be taken for granted but it cannot be dismissed out of hand. Shehbaz Sharif was not the chief minister of Punjab at the time the election was held but he had occupied that office for the preceding five years. It is conceivable that those who managed the election regarded him well enough to have turned the scales in his party’s favour. It is a possibility but we cannot say that this is what actually happened. Nawaz Sharif and company may have earned the support that they received particularly in Punjab.

In another day or so he will take charge as the country’s prime minister presumably for the next five years. He is held in exceptionally high public esteem, he is expected to perform miracles. Many people seem to assume that mis-governance and corruption will go away and shortages of power, gas, and water will be overcome, poverty will be alleviated and unemployment will be mitigated within days of his assumption of office. This is not going to happen. He is going out of his way to rationalise these expectations. It is not unreasonable to expect that mis-governance and corruption, especially that in high places, will go away. But as he has been cautioning his audiences, it will take two or more years to generate more electricity and meet the other shortages.

Mr Sharif is promising a style of governance calculated to reassure the people that in choosing him they did well. He says he will forego the lavish residence in the prime minister’s house; that he will work with a relatively small cabinet of ministers; that he will do without the protocol that has traditionally been available to high officials and that he will practice austerity throughout government operations. These assurances are indeed welcome and the next few weeks will show to what extent they were intended seriously.

The writer is professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts and can be reached at anwarsyed@cox.net