About time PML-N acknowledges its leader from south of Punjab

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About time PML-N acknowledges its leader from south of Punjab
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The mainstream and social media are flooded with speculations about the turnout at the gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan to welcome three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who broke his self-exile after about four years. We try to evaluate both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the turnout. At the start, let us lay out that PML-N leaders from the south of Punjab played a major role in collecting this gathering but their efforts are underrated this time too as always.

First we look at quantitative aspect. The PML-N Lahore chapter made arrangements to seat 100,000 participants. Lahore Police has reportedly stated that about 60,000-70,000 people were collected. The Special Brant has reportedly put the number at 75,000.

Intelligence Bureau (IB) endorses Lahore Police stating that the number of people was not more than 70,000. If media reports are to be relied upon, Military Iintelligence thinks that the number could be between 80,000 and 90,000. “However, according to a sensitive state institution, the Minar-e-Pakistan ground housed around 150,000 attendees,” reports an English language newspaper.

It seems that nobody has anything to say about the number of people with certainty.

Now we come to evaluate the qualitative aspect of the number. At this stage, one thing that is certain is that this was not a Lahori crowd. Lahore city, per se, remained indifferent to the gathering. It goes without saying that if PTI has a fair play, it is likely to sweep majority of seats in the provincial capital.

The thing is PML-N leaders were directed by the party to bring as many people as they can. Elections are upon us, sooner or later. Collection of crowd was tacitly linked to the credentials for party ticket in the elections. It is generally believed that this is the first time in the history of Pakistan that people do not know when the elections may be held but they know who will be the prime minister. Driven by power, every candidate did his or her best to bring the highest number of buses to Lahore.

If we go by the display of banners that passengers of these buses were carrying reading the names of their leaders and origins, we can easily see that much of the most of the crowd was collected from the south of Punjab. In the south of Punjab, Sibtain Bukhari turns out to be the highest crowd puller. In the previous by-elections, Bukhari was the only PML-N candidate who turned out to be successful as almost all other seats were clinched by the PTI candidates.

On the basis of his performance, if the party does justice, Bukhari deserves a national assembly seat this time as he has appeared to be leader from the south of Punjab. Not being a Sardar goes to his credit. Above all, he is young, carries no corruption baggage and strives to promote education in the region. Hence, on the qualitative side, we believe that the party will not be misled this time by its leaders from the central and northern Punjab as southern leaders have outperformed all others by and large in this gathering that is going to define the future of PML-N.

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