Politics has never been a particularly pleasant business in these parts, especially in Punjab since it is the most important province in the federation, but the atmosphere ahead of today’s by-polls easily beats all previous levels of toxicity; which is a crying shame. It’s not just that campaign speeches are full of venom and vitriol for opponents, instead of what they would like to do for the people, it’s also that party leaders prefer and reward the kind of lieutenants that stand out for the crassness of their attitudes. So the whole thing has descended to one big fight in which the one that throws more mud at the other wins the battle of wits. The latest twist has been the release of the Supreme Court’s detailed judgement on the actions of former deputy speaker of the national assembly, Qasim Suri, when the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan was tabled. Though parliamentary business in Islamabad is far removed from the battle for Punjab, it’s added yet more poison on the road to the July 17 by-poll. Now PML-N heavyweights are smiling ear-to-ear and dangling Article-6 in front of the PTI leadership, while the latter has rolled up its sleeves even more as it ratchets up its rhetoric against state institutions; clearly taking the position that anybody that does not agree with the party, even if it is the superior judiciary, is no friend of the country. In this rush the people of the province have perhaps failed to notice that there’s nothing that either party has said about how it would run the cash-starved province to their benefit, whose policies would benefit households and businesses more, and all that. They have, in fact, only been witness to a very ugly feud between the political elite of this place. And even when they throng to political rallies, most of them expect nothing more than the circus they are treated to. Today’s by-poll shows perfectly just how and why this country’s politics has become devoid of material and full of poison. *