Advantage Imran

Though PTI chief won hands down in the KP, his rivals accuse his party of unchecked utilisation of govt resources

Despite the strong belief of many political analysts that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance of several mainstream political parties will easily walk over the finish line without much trouble, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan won all three national assembly seats he contested for in last Sunday’s by-elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Contesting against big names in the politics of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Imran Khan was expected to face tough times in Peshawar and Mardan respectively against Awami National Party (ANP) stalwart former federal minister for railways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour who has won the national assembly seat from Peshawar four times, and renowned religious scholar and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) leader Maulana Muhammad Qasim, who was seen by many as the favourite against the PTI chief. Maulana Qasim had won twice from Mardan on the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) ticket in 2002 and 2008 but lost to PTI’s Ali Muhammad Khan in 2013.

Charsadda was also supposed to offer a close battle as Imran Khan was pitting against ANP provincial president Aimal Wali Khan at his and his party’s hometown and stronghold. However, the birthplace of political giants like Aimal Wali’s great-grandfather Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan aka Bacha Khan, grandfather Khan Abdul Wali Khan and father Asfandyar Wali Khan; kept its tradition of bringing the Pashtun nationalists down in such high-importance duels.  It merits mentioning that Wali Khan had lost to the late Maulana Hassan Jan of the JUI in the 1990 general elections with a deficit of over 13,000 votes. Wali Khan announced retirement from active politics after the defeat, followed by Asfandyar Wali Khan after twice finishing second from the same constituency in 2013 to Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Maulana Gohar Ali Shah and to PTI’s Fazal Muhammad Khan in 2018.

According to political analyst Kashifuddin Syed, the main factor behind the loss of PDM is the charismatic popularity of Imran Khan among the youth, which other parties have failed to pull off in the past decade. “His charisma and the way he reaches out to the youth is the game changer. While Imran Khan attracts the youth through catchy slogans, other parties have no plans for them,” Kashifuddin opined.

Another deciding factor according to Kashifuddin Syed is the fact that PTI prepared well for the by-elections whereas the PDM took things lightly. “PDM took the elections and PTI very easy. NA 22 in Mardan was left to Maulana Qasim alone while there was no show or campaign from even third-level leadership of the JUI. In an interview with me, Maulana Qasim revealed that they had won the majority of male votes, however, the PTI snatched victory due to their women voters. Had the PDM and ANP any influence in the women voters, they could have won in Mardan and Charsadda as the difference of votes in both constituencies was only a few thousand,” he added.

Kashifuddin’s view about the lack of support and coordination among PDM parties is also shared by many with political understanding in KP as the general perception here is that the PDM parties did not support their candidates. A number of media persons covering the by-elections on Sunday had reported the complete absence or extremely low presence of PDM parties while only the candidate’s own party workers tried attracting their supporters.

The low turnout of voters in all three contested constituencies is another reason for PDM’s below-par performance as unlike PTI, they were unable to bring out voters from their homes to the polling station on election day. Of all the three national assembly seats, NA 22 Mardan III had the highest percentage of votes polled with 32.94. A total of 51,846, or 24 per cent of the registered 281,060 women voters went to the polling stations. Imran Khan bagged 76,681 votes compared to Maulana Qasim who finished second with 68,181 votes.

Similarly, in NA 24 Charsadda II, 18 per cent or 44,317 of the 245,681 registered women voters went to vote. The total turnout in Charsadda was 29.02 per cent as Imran Khan defeated Aimal Wali Khan with just over 10 thousand votes by securing 78,589 compared to Wali’s 68,356 votes.

The worst performer on all terms was the NA 31 Peshawar V where 20.28 per cent of voters cast their votes. Only 10 per cent or 22,050 to be precise, women voters out of the 270,891 registered voters chose among the candidates. The constituency also proved the worst for PDM as Imran Khan defeated Ghulam Ahmad Bilour with nearly double the margin by bagging 57,818 compared to Bilour’s 32,252 votes.

Kashifuddin Syed argues that internal differences among the ANP leadership were one of the reasons behind their heavy defeat. “The ANP leadership did not campaign for Bilour. Some ANP leaders claim that the Bilour’s do not want anyone to interfere in NA 31 as Ghulam Bilour wishes to hand over the politics of this constituency to his grandson in the future,” Kashifuddin claimed.

On the other hand, JUI’s secretary of information Abdul Jalil Jan believes that it is not a defeat for the PDM as despite Imran Khan’s greater votes, the JUI and ANP candidates came close to him. “It is Imran Khan’s personal vote and victory and not PTI’s. The important factor is that Imran Khan had all the provincial government machinery, its employees, financial support and resources. The provincial government and its ministers were completely involved in changing the tides in favour of Imran Khan,” Jalil Jan claimed.

“Similarly, posting Lady Health Workers (LHW) and their blue-eyed government employees on election duty was also a way of rigging the elections. Chief Minister House acted as the PTI’s election campaign office, which tasked all ministers and MPA to carry out certain duties in the elections. In short, Imran Khan won the election because he has a film star-like followership without any solid ground,” Jalil Jan expressed.

Jalil Jan added that the PDM parties honestly tried securing votes for their nominated candidates. “There is no doubt all parties in the PDM put sincere efforts for their candidates. It is a known fact that in such alliances, the party to which a candidate belongs tries harder than others. We in PDM have complete trust in each other,” he maintained.

Blaming the unchecked utilisation of the provincial government resources, and the pressurisation of the police and local administrations by the provincial government in the three constituencies as factors for interfering with the election outcomes, ANP senior leader Sardar Hussain Babak said that the PTI and the hidden powers behind it did all they can to attain their desired results.

“Thousands of school teachers were free but election duties were given to Lady Health Visitors (LHV). Teachers and election staff were threatened for not performing duties as directed, KP government resources, including the helicopter, vehicles, and even Imran Khan’s kitchen expenses were all paid for by the provincial government. But above all, hours of screen time were given to Imran Khan while his opponents hardly appeared on the mainstream media. These are all different means of rigging the elections,” Babak opined.

Sardar Hussain Babak even claimed that a tweet by the United States President Joe Biden only two days before the elections terming Pakistan as the most dangerous country shows the backing Imran Khan has got. “That tweet seconded the false narrative of Imran Khan being the force against the US, a Vlog by an analyst in the afternoon on the election day are all acts of projecting Imran Khan as the hero of the country,” Babak opined.