Poll campaign ends peacefully

The election campaign for the October 10 polls closed midnight yesterday in Lahore as per the schedule announced by the Election Commission.

This in fact means that the PPP's rally Monday night was the last and indeed only major gathering held in the city. The PPP voters were however seen in larger numbers than before after the party's impressive rally Monday night, and were pasting banners, posters etc in various locations across the city.

The two main factions of the Pakistan Muslim League, the PML-Quaid-e-Azam and the PML-Nawaz brought their campaigns to a close in the city yesterday without any major rally or gathering.

Some PML-N leaders reportedly approached the PPP seeking permission to make its rally on Monday night a "joint affair" but the PPP leadership did not encourage this. Even corner meetings remained small and passed almost unnoticed as they were held in constituencies.

This breaks with past PML tradition where campaigns for polls have closed with massive rallies in Lahore, the city seen by the exiled Sharif family as the "heartland of the PML-N".

For its part, the PML-QA was scheduled to hold a big public meeting at Minar-i-Pakistan or elsewhere in the city on October 7 with the collaboration of Grand National Alliance (GNA), but the plan fizzled out, apparently due to a lack of organisation and leadership interest.

The public meetings that were to be held jointly by PML-QA and GNA never saw the light of the day, with public meetings scheduled in Multan and Rawalpindi last month also cancelled, pointing perhaps to the lack of coordination between the two parties, and a possible reluctance to work together.

The PML-QA had requested the Punjab government for permission to hold a public meeting at Minar-i-Pakistan on October 7, but later denied it had planned a rally.

Sources within the party said it "seemed as if the top party leaders were not interested in holding this meeting in the first place." It is believed Mian Azhar, the PML-QA's leader's pre-occupatiuon with his own campaign and that of his brother's means he has "little time for big party rallies."

The PML-N is also not in a position to stage any show of strength in the city. In contrast to the past, it apparently fears it will fail to gather a "respectable crowd" and thus in fact expose its weaknesses by staging a rally.

The PML-N did however, yesterday morning, organise several small but enthusiastic meetings in Shahdra, which falls in NA-118 where Mian Azhar has been pitted against Hafiz Salman Butt.

This is considered the most important and interesting contest in the city, with the two PML faction clashing head on and the PML-N yesterday seemed the stronger group as its leaders visited voters and spoke at corner meetings. The PML-N also asked voters to "look out" for rigging on this seat and said "it would ensure any such move fails."

Hoardings and banners for some other candidates, such as Imran Khan, who is contesting a seat from NA-122 in Lahore also appeared overnight as if by magic, with parties apparently suddenly realising time was running out.

Apart from the PPP, only the Muttahida Mahaz-e-Amal had been able during the campaign to arrange big gatherings throughout the country, and this provided momentum to the electioneering by their candidates.

Tahirul Qadri, the chief of Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) addressed most of the PAT public gatherings in Jhang and Lahore, from where he is contesting.

The pro-government Grand National Alliance and Millat Party chief Farooq Leghari is perhaps the only leader who addressed meetings in all the four provinces, and also smaller meetings in both the Punjab and Sindh.