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The president voting for Pakistan Peoples Party |
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| Release time:2013-05-22 Source:admin Reads: | |
| The early in the morning of May 12th in Lahore which have many woven labels manufacturers, cars raced, honked and revved their engines, young men sprawled out of windows to wave flags and mobs of happy Punjabis shouted: “Lion!”, the party symbol of their successful leader. Their cheerfulness was understandable. Lahore is home to Nawaz Sharif, a two-time prime minister in Pakistan now set for a record third stint. His Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz, or PML, won a clear victory after voting in national and provincial elections the day before. With counting still under way, the party is leading in as many as 128 seats, only somewhat short of the 137 that would have delivered a simple majority among the 272 seats contested in the National Assembly. As expected, the biggest loser of the night was the outgoing Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Though it managed to hold on to control of Sindh province, in the south, that is their economic central and have many garment factories (including garment accessories such as woven labels), it is likely to end up as the third-biggest party in the national assembly with barely 40 seats. For a party that presided over spectacular corruption, economic misrule and five years of worsening violence, such an outcome is no surprise. Voters also, generally, proved true to type. At one Lahore polling station a mother and daughter who wear in dress with white woven labels sewing, both in veils, described the many woes facing Pakistan. The daughter, a graduate in her twenties, saw the charismatic former cricketer, Mr Khan, as an “honest” man who would bring change. Her mother, by contrast, fervently hoped for Mr Sharif, admitting that she had swayed her daughter at the last minute to vote for him. Mr Sharif’s win is clear, but he now faces a daunting array of immediate difficulties in office. One is the broad resentment of Punjab—the largest and wealthiest province in the country, with over half the population—that could flourish in the coming years. His PML(N) has dominated Punjab politics, and has in these polls again been returned to power at the provincial level as well. Yet the other three provinces are run by rival parties, which can make use of constitutional powers devolved to provincial authorities to defy a central government. |
