ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s major political parties have started finalizing their candidates and campaign strategies to mobilize support for the Feb. 8 national polls following the announcement of the election schedule in the country on Friday.
The schedule was notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) following the Supreme Court’s intervention to give a 54-day period to political parties for electioneering. The candidates will be able to file their nomination papers from Dec. 20 to Dec. 22, and will receive election symbols on Jan. 13 following the scrutiny of their documents.
All major political parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), have already constituted parliamentary boards to finalize potential candidates for relevant constituencies.
“Our parliamentary board has conducted 10 meetings until now to interview and finalize our candidates,” Malik Abrar, a senior PML-N leader, told Arab News on Saturday. “A final list of candidates will hopefully be published next week.”
Abrar said the PML-N was also chalking out a strategy to hold major political gatherings in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh provinces to mobilize public support.
“A complete plan of our political rallies will soon be shared with the media and the public.”
He said the PML-N welcomed the Supreme Court’s intervention to ensure timely elections, adding that his party would win the majority of seats and form the next government.
“PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif will himself lead the election campaign to reassure the public he will steer the country out of the current economic and political mess,” Abrar added.
Former prime minister Imran Khan’s PTI also said it had been finalizing suitable candidates while holding workers’ conventions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
“We will be finalizing the candidates next week,” Advocate Shoaib Shaheen, a PTI core committee member, told Arab News. “A complete schedule for the public gatherings in each district and city will be shared with the public by next week.”
The PTI leader complained his party was not getting the “level playing field” even after the announcement of the election schedule.
“If such illegal actions continue against the PTI,” he said, “nobody will accept the authenticity of these polls.”
Ex-PM Khan has been in jail since August this year following his conviction in a case related to the illegal sale of state gifts during his tenure in power. He is also facing a separate trial on charges of leaking the contents of a classified diplomatic cable for political purposes.
Nearly 127 million electorates will be exercising their right to vote in the upcoming national polls over 266 national and 593 provincial assembly seats in the beginning of the next year.
The Pakistan Peoples Party’s senior leader Sehar Kamran said her party was already in the election mode as chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had addressed workers’ conventions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces.
“Our parliamentary board meetings are being held regularly to finalize the candidates and hopefully the party will announce their list very shortly,” she told Arab News.
She said the PPP leadership would be addressing major political gatherings in almost all districts and cities of the country to mobilize the public and share the party’s manifesto with them.
“We hope the people will respond to our leaders’ call and vote for our candidates on Feb. 8,” Kamran added.
Shahida Akhtar Ali of the JUI-F said her party was already holding corner meetings in different cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to mobilize the public and develop a schedule for major public gatherings to be announced in the coming days.
“The party’s central leadership is meeting on Monday to finalize the candidates and chalk out a strategy for the campaign,” she told Arab News.
However, Ali expressed concerns over the security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, citing recent terror attacks against law enforcement personnel and calling it a “big challenge” for voters and candidates.
“We hope the elections will be conducted in a safe and secure environment where people will be able to freely exercise their choice to elect their representatives for the next five years,” she added.
