A week before the Gujranwala by-election, the religious party collects endorsements from a PTI provincial candidate and a PPP councillor; it won about 3pc of the vote here in 2024.
GUJRANWALA: The Pakistan Markazi Muslim League is trying to turn a by-election it was not expected to win. A week before polling in Gujranwala’s NA-77 constituency, PMML can draw voters from the parties that have stepped back, collecting endorsements from local figures of the PTI and PPP.
PMML candidate Qazi Muhammad Ibrahim Gujjar has received the backing of Rao Ali, a PTI candidate for the provincial seat PP-59, Pakistan Peoples Party councillor Chaudhry Karamat Warraich and Rana Zafarullah, the party said in a statement. Neither the PTI nor the PPP leadership has commented on the endorsements.
The seat fell vacant when four-time MNA and former federal minister Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz died in September. Polling is scheduled for Nov. 8.
NA-77 has been a PML-N stronghold for decades. In the February 2024 general election, Bashir Virk won 109,704 votes, or 44.8pc. Rashida Tariq, backed by the PTI but forced to run as an independent after the party lost its election symbol, came second with 91,825. The PPP’s Imtiaz Safdar Warraich polled 17,059, and the PMML about 6,500, roughly 3pc. Turnout was 52pc of 483,104 registered voters.
Those numbers frame the contest. The PTI has boycotted by-elections for about a year, alleging rigging, and has not announced a candidate here. That leaves close to 92,000 votes cast for a PTI-backed candidate in 2024 without an obvious home, along with a PPP vote of about 17,000.
Rashida Tariq was among 18 candidates who filed nomination papers in early October, according to the reports.
Rallies across the constituency
The PMML says it has held public meetings, rallies and corner meetings in Ladhewala Warraich, Kot Ishaq, Qila Didar Singh, Rahwali, Garjakh, Gondlanwala, Talwandi Khajurwali, Lambanwali, Kot Shahaan, Rajkot, Dhulay and along Hafizabad Road, alongside door-to-door canvassing. Supporters chanted slogans for Gujjar and the party’s election symbol, the chair.
Party leaders Sheikh Fayyaz Ahmed, the PMML’s Gujranwala division president, Muhammad Rashid Sindhu, Irfan Mehes, Chaudhry Faisal Murad and Rana Tufail told the gatherings that the party had entered politics to serve the public. They criticised the area’s development record without naming the PML-N directly, and told voters to hold their representatives to account at the ballot box.
The PMML has built its pitch in Punjab around everyday grievances, attacking gas cuts and LPG prices and criticising the outsourcing of public schools, while pressing the Election Commission for a date for local government polls. Party president Khalid Masood Sindhu used a youth convention in Lahore last month to court first-time voters.
The PML-N’s Virk name
The PML-N has fielded Rashid Bashir Virk, the late MNA’s son, on the direction of party president Nawaz Sharif, and is counting on the family’s long hold on the seat and a sympathy vote.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif visited the Virk residence in Gujranwala last month on Oct. 2 to offer condolences, describing the late MNA as a loyal companion of Nawaz Sharif who stood by the party “through good and difficult times”. She said she hoped Rashid Bashir Virk would carry forward his father’s political legacy.
The visit doubled as a gathering of the party’s local machinery. The chief minister met members of the provincial assembly, party ticket-holders and local leaders at the residence, greeting them individually and asking for their suggestions and updates on their constituencies’ issues.
Rashid Bashir Virk said the family would always remember the support of Nawaz Sharif and his daughter during a difficult time.
NA-77 Result would mean
Few expect the PML-N to lose a seat it held by almost 18,000 votes even with PTI backing in the race. The more telling number on Nov. 8 will be the size of the margin and the turnout, which by-elections typically depress.
For the PMML, a vote share well above its 3pc in 2024 would suggest it is picking up some of the voters left without a candidate by the PTI boycott, and give it a claim to be a growing force in central Punjab. A weak showing would suggest that endorsements from individual local figures do not carry their supporters with them.
The PMML contests elections as a registered party on the Election Commission’s list.
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