ISLAMABAD: Amidst an acrimonious political environment and clouds hanging over the upcoming general elections in Pakistan, a former prime minister on Saturday predicted further delay in polls due to the extreme winter.
The Election Commission of Pakistan has announced that it would hold polls in the last week of January after the completion of the delimitation process and fulfilling other legal requirements prior to elections.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in an interview with the Geo News on Saturday night said that elections may not be possible in January in several constituencies of the country due to heavy snowfall in the winter.
“In my own area, people will not be able to go to polling stations as the entire area is covered with snow,” Abbasi said, who belongs to Murree Hill Resort near Islamabad, which receives moderate to heavy snowfall in December and January.
Abbasi, who was prime minister from 2017 to 2018, also said that there are many constituencies in the north and northwestern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province where life is paralysed in winter.
“With people unable to go to polling stations, the process will be tainted and allegations of unfair elections will be made,” the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party said.
When asked when the polls could be held, if not in January, he responded by saying that the end of February or March would be a good time for holding the elections.
To a question about the source of his information that the poll might be delayed due to weather, he said that it was his “assessment, not information”.
The take of the former premier on election timing comes as the ECP has been criticized by political leaders for failure to hold the election within 90 days of the dissolution of the national assembly on August 9.
Despite doubts over the timing of elections, political parties are gearing up for the mega event by aligning with possible allies and choosing enemies to target them in the campaign.
The Pakistan Peoples Party of former president Asif Ali Zardari is apparently worrying over the increasing bonhomie between its rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the powerful establishment that directly or indirectly has controlled politics in Pakistan.
Zardari has been trying to present his son and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as the ideal choice for the prime minister due to the good reception he got during several visits to the US while serving as foreign minister.
It is believed that PML-N may have had greater chances to come on top if former premier Nawaz Sharif avoided confrontation with the establishment by toning down his demand to hold accountable former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and former ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed for ousting him from power in 2017.
The elder Sharif is making his comeback to Pakistan on October 21 after about four years of self-exile in London where he went in 2019 for medical treatment but never came back.
In an address to party leaders about two weeks ago, he made the above demand, sending ripples within the PML-N and prompting his younger brother and former premier Shehbaz Sharif to skedaddle to London.
According to informed sources within the PML-N, in London, he succeeded in convincing his elder brother not to upset the political applecart by targeting the army’s former generals.
Another interesting aspect of the acrimonious political environment is the future of another former premier Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
According to a recent survey by Gallup Pakistan, an independent organisation, Khan enjoys the support of at least 60 per cent of the people in the country.
However, his fate hangs in balance due to about 200 cases against him in various courts. It is still unknown who would lead the party and its campaign in his absence as party president Pervaiz Elahi and senior vice president Shah Mahmood Qureshi are also in custody of authorities due to different cases.
Analysts believe that with the country ultimately inching towards polls in a charged environment and political parties struggling to find a credible narrative, the India factor vis-a-vis Kashmir may frequently come up in the speeches of leaders if major parties like the PML-N decided to spare the establishment.