Party borrows the language of Naqvi and Bilawal to demand a full overhaul as it opens a nationwide campaign against inflation.
LAHORE: The Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML) called for a complete overhaul of the country’s political and economic system, arguing that a “reset” of the kind now being discussed by senior government figures would not go far enough, and launched a nationwide campaign against rising prices.
Spokesman Faisal Nadeem used computer language to make his point at a press conference in Lahore: politicians were talking about a reset, he said, but the system needed to be formatted because it had failed to deliver for the public.
Borrowing the government’s words
The PMML’s line plays off a debate opened this week inside the ruling coalition. Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called on Tuesday for a “political reset” in which parties unite for the country, and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Thursday that he and Bilawal were nearly on the same page, adding that in his view all matters, not just political ones, were due for a reset.
Naqvi also proposed a referendum on creating new provinces and said corruption existed across the country.
Nadeem said such remarks showed the ruling leadership itself was acknowledging the crises facing Pakistan, and that the public had lost confidence in it amid economic hardship and corruption.
Inflation as a campaign issue
The new campaign targets household costs, which the party has made a central theme since petrol prices neared Rs395 a litre during the Middle East conflict. The PMML campaigned on fuel prices during the NA-77 race and says the same message will now be taken nationwide. It did not give details of planned events.
Fuel has eased since then, but food prices have kept climbing, keeping the cost of living at the top of voters’ concerns ahead of the local polls.
Narowal and Gujranwala
Nadeem claimed the PMML was emerging as a strong political force, citing support in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s elections and in recent by-elections, and alleged that the party’s wins in Narowal and Gujranwala had been taken away through manipulation.
The Narowal reference is to the AJK Legislative Assembly’s LA-37 Jammu-IV refugee seat, voted on in August, where the PML-N’s Maryam Javed won 28,664 votes against 22,827 for Usman Aleem, a candidate associated with the PMML, according to unofficial results. In Gujranwala’s NA-77, the PML-N’s Rashid Bashir Virk led by 13,147 votes on the provisional count. The PML-N denies any rigging in either contest.
“We will not allow the mandate of NA-77 to be stolen,” Nadeem said, adding that the party had approached the Election Commission and would pursue the matter through all constitutional and legal forums.
Two second places within three months give the PMML a talking point, though not yet a seat. Whether its inflation campaign can turn protest votes into wins will be tested first in Punjab’s local elections in February.
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