The results of the by-election are the talk of the town and the coalition government is in trouble. Let’s see what went wrong with PML-N.
PML-N criticized PTI for rising inflation and held an entire march against inflation. When PML-N came to power (let’s not say they came to power because honestly, they had none, they only came to federal), people were expecting economic relief. But PML-N did not meet their expectations. In fact, it gave cardiac arrest to the people belonging to every class.
PML-N had the same strategy as 2013, IMF. They intended to strike a deal with IMF and solve all the problems as usual. It was an impression that the IMF deal was tough because Imran Khan was not easy to deal with, but since PML-N has experience working with the IMF, they will easily crack the deal. But IMF was not a piece of cake this time. IMF which was very flexible from 2013 to 2018, gave PML-N a very, in fact, extremely tough time. It wanted PMLN to do an awful lot for the package.
Now here was the role of PML-N. It had two choices; bow down before IMF and do everything it said, or refuse their offer and look for a better alternative where they could get money without submitting too much. Of course, PML-N chose the easy way, the submission to IMF (which was definitely not easy for them).
Following the orders of IMF, PML-N began to cut the subsidies for common people. It did not pay the oil companies which resulted in nerve-wracking three-year load shedding. Inflation soured up in the country. Within three hectic months of PML-N, people forgot the three-year tenure of PTI as it sharply affected their budget. When it comes to voters, PML-N is not so lucky. Unlike Insafians, they are not easily flattered with everything PML-N says or does.
PML-N tried to give an impression that Pakistan is broke and there is no money left to give subsidies. When you give an impression, you must maintain it and PML-N didn’t. It cut the subsidies for people in the name of bankruptcy but continued its lavish spending that suggested otherwise. The great travelling, chartered planes, lines of protocol cars along with allowances like free petrol, free electricity, free gas, free everything.
One minister would say that there is not enough money to buy poison but billion of rupees would be spent on advertisements the other day. Shehbaz Sharif took all tough decisions for us, but not for his fellow parliamentarians. We were the sole victims of the economic crisis in Pakistan.
Another major problem with PML-N is its laidback attitude. The infamous “beggars can’t be choosers” doomed PML-N as well. Many countries take loans from other countries but do not show this submissive attitude as PML-N does. We have neighbours who look the west in the eye. BJP is being lauded in India because its minister put the US in its place despite taking loans from them. PTI did the same and successfully scammed its supporters. PML-N, however, showed a very submissive attitude in this regard which was underwhelming for its voters.
Another major factor was the wrong candidates. PML-N did not give tickets to its members, rather it gave most of the tickets to the disgruntled members of PTI. Probably the voters despised the disgruntled members of PTI because of their opportunist reputation. One point that we missed is that PTI won 15 seats but lost five as well. Earlier it had won all these seats, but this time, it lost some of them. There is not a sharp difference between the votes of both parties. So the narrative of PML-N did penetrate among people despite all odds. This is a moment for PTI to think about how PML-N secured so many votes on their seats despite soaring inflation.
Anyhow, PML-N lost and it will now pay the price and so will Punjab. If PML-N loses Punjab, there will be a tug of war between both PTI and PML-N for the next year till the election. Already the President of PTI was not cooperating with Prime Minister, now the largest province of Pakistan will do the same as well.
If Punjab goes to PTI, it will give a very hard time to the Federal squad. PML-N will become very weak. Let’s hope this mini election is an eye opener for PML-N and it will revisit its policies rather than haphazardly flying with a plane without any homework.
