By-election fiasco.

BY-ELECTIONS do spring surprises occasionally but despite the uncertainty about individual contests, these are considered sedate affairs in a democracy as, unlike a general election, the formation of a government is not at stake. The slew of by-elections held in all the four provinces recently were no exception.

The PPP not only retained all three provincial and one National Assembly seats in Sindh but also increased its share of votes in all contests compared to the 2018 general election. The JUI-F won its provincial assembly seat in Balochistan and considerably widened its lead over its rivals.

The two upsets of the nine by-elections were both witnessed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the JUI-F narrowly lost the National Assembly seat in Kurram which it had won in 2018. Another, and major, upset concerned the Nowshera provincial assembly seat where the PML-N not only unexpectedly defeated the PTI, but also more than doubled the percentage of votes gained in 2018. KP and especially Nowshera is considered a stronghold of the PTI and a PML-N win in such a secure seat sent shockwaves across the party structure.

The greatest volatility was, however, witnessed in Punjab. Two seats, one provincial and the other national, were at stake in central Punjab which is considered to be the PML-N stronghold. The provincial assembly seat in Wazirabad was retained by the PML-N but not without a surprise. The PTI almost doubled its percentage share of votes while the PML-N share decreased slightly.

The ECP must be commended for taking timely, decisive and bold action.

The biggest surprise, though of a different kind, was in store in the National Assembly constituency NA-75, now commonly known as the Daska constituency. The seat was comfortably won by the PML-N candidate in the 2018 general election with a margin of around 40,000 votes.

The Daska by-election, in contrast to the other constituencies, was marred by violence. Squads of armed men on motorcycles were seen roaming in Daska city and resorting to aerial firing which scared away many voters. Two persons died and many were injured as a result of the firing at one location. Eyewitness reports indicate that the police did not make any serious effort to check this wanton vandalism. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) noted '...incidents of murders, firing and injuries, bad law-and-order situation in the subject constituency creating harassment for voters and other circumstances leading to make the...

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