Daily Times

In Pakistan’s general elections on May 11, the notorious right-wing political elite has successfully engineered a comeback. Twice former prime minister (and leader of his faction of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz [PML-N], who was ousted in 1999 in a military coup by General Pervez Musharraf), Nawaz Sharif has managed to bag 124 seats in the National Assembly, enabling him comfortably to form a majority government at the centre. While the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party Government led by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has gone from a parliamentary majority of 84 seats to a mere 34 seats in total. The major attraction of the election campaign was the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (Justice Movement, or PTI) led by the ex-cricketer and philanthropist, Imran Khan. However, contrary to his claims of coming to power on the crest of a popular electorate ‘tsunami’, his party failed to achieve their target as it lagged behind in third position with only 21 seats in the national assembly. The center-right pro-business secular party, Muyyahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which is based among the Urdu-speaking community who migrated to the urban centres of Sindh province after the partition of India, bagged 18 National Assembly seats.

The biggest loss was suffered by the anti-Taliban Pashtun secular Awami National Party. It was wiped out of both the National Assembly, where it could only manage to secure one seat, as well as the Provincial Assembly in its heartland of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it held only six seats, thereby giving PTI on 34 seats, a simple majority. Although it is early days, the PML-N has already agreed to let PTI form government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Khan has announced a collation government in that province with the extreme right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which adheres to the Wahhabi/Salafist/Islamist sect of Sunni Islam followed by Saudi Arabia and the Taliban.

The results in the province of Sindh have seen the PPP bounce back to victory in its heartland, with 66 seats. However, the elections in Karachi and Hyderabad have been declared controversial, not only by the runners-up such as the MQM, PTI and the JI, but also by the Election Commission itself. Election are re-scheduled in some constituencies in Karachi for May 21. However, the civil administration and security personnel have expressed their apprehension about this due to lack of law and order.

In Balochistan, which is rife with social and political discontent against the centre’s high-handedness and the volatile situation of law and order amidst a proxy war between the US and China for control of the resources of Baluchistan as well as the deep-sea port of Gwadar, the PML-N managed to secure nine out of 50 seats.

In the province of Punjab, its home base, the PML-N won in a landslide with 124 seats. PTI won 21 and the PPP, only six.

It is claimed that the voter turnout was around 63 percent, but thousands of votes are being challenged in some constituencies since the number of votes cast were more than the actual registered voters. The social media has been flooded with footage of irregularities in the voting process captured on mobile phones. There have been large sit-ins by the PTI, PPP and MQM against the alleged poll-rigging and the demands for re-run in several constituencies are becoming stronger. It is claimed by the members of the PTI that Sharif managed to plant his cronies on all major administrative posts during the election with the help of his younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif who was the chief minister of Punjab for five years. Both the Sharif brothers were protégés of the notorious military dictator of the 1980s, General Ziaul Haq.

The new government is expected to be sworn-in after the election of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and the Leader of the House, which will commence on May 30. Sharif has already met Khan in the hospital where the PTI leader is recovering from injuries he had after he fell from the crane that was lifting him onto the stage during an election rally in Lahore, and which left him with at least three minor fractures in his spine and two broken ribs. Khan has announced that he is willing to cooperate on matters of ‘national interest’, whatever that ambiguous phrase means.

Prime Minister-in-waiting, Nawaz Sharif already has issued a statement showing his willingness to co-operate with the US on matters of ‘mutual interest’. US Secretary of State, John Kerry will be the first foreign dignitary to visit Sharif as soon as he has been sworn in. The commitments to the IMF demand cutting public spending and serious restructuring of the economy. This will bring the Sharif government into direct conflict with the impoverished masses of Pakistan. Trade unions in Pakistan are already thoroughly bureaucratized, and previously have collaborated with successive governments in the criminal act of privatisation of the economy. They will be a major obstacle in any meaningful resistance to the Sharif government. The reformist parties of the bourgeoisie and the pseudo-left could might come out in protest on non-issues, thus comfortably ignoring the main issue of class struggle.

Out of a total population of nearly 190 million, only 80 million of Pakistanis are registered voters. At the current rate of 63 percent voter turn-out, this represents just over 45 million people. If we deduct 45 million children under the age of 15 this leaves us with 100 million people (mostly working class and female) who did not participate in this election process. There are reports that in the northern parts of Pakistan, women were barred from at least four constituencies by the mutual consent of all major political parties. The Tehreek Taliban Pakistan had announced that they would attack the PPP, ANP and MQM while guaranteeing the conservative right a safe election campaign. Both Khan, Sharif and the JI held massive election rallies in all major cities of Pakistan without a single casualty inflicted upon them by the Taliban. On the other hand, a total of more than 140 people, including at least two parliamentary candidates, lost their lives due to attacks on the election rallies of the PPP, ANP and MQM. The PPP could not manage to hold a single major election rally and the ANP candidates were restricted to holding small corner meetings. In other words, with the help of jackboot tactics, the right-wing conservative political elite has engineered an electoral comeback in Pakistan. The future of Pakistani working people now depends on their willingness to challenge the status quo on a class basis.

The writer is a freelancer based in Glasgow, and he can be reached at dr_amjad_mirza@hotmail.com