Karachi. Political Diary.

 Karachi. Political Diary. 

Mubasher Mir

Pirapagara held a protest rally for the first time in his political career, addressed a large crowd and spoke openly about the rigging of the election and also hinted that the country was going to get out of crisis. Pakistan Army can play a better role.

The central leaders of GDA also spoke and the huge turnout of their supporting voters is a sign that they have a good size vote bank. Although he has also hinted to protest in front of the Sindh Assembly, it remains to be seen how he will protest on the occasion of the first session of the Sindh Assembly and what will be its impact.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari responded by addressing a large rally in Thatta as an expression of gratitude and challenging Pir Pagara to contest the by-election. He also targeted Maulana Fazlur Rahman and asked him to contest in the election. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was simultaneously announcing his alliance with the PML-N while also criticizing him for his proposals, which he said included offers to make him prime minister for two years. Bilawal Bhutto had announced in his election campaign that he would form the government by combining independent candidates, but not many people were able to bring together the members of the assembly who won as independents of PTI. It does not yet appear easy that PTI's winning independent members will defect to another party in large numbers. The reason for this seems to be the pressure of PTI workers and their strong commitment to the party is also important. In order to control social media, the caretaker government had previously disrupted the internet, now the ex-Twitter, X, has been significantly disrupted. It appears that the caretaker government plans to shut down other social media sites as well.

A lot of voices are being raised against this decision at the global level. Domestic media and other social organizations are not calling it a good decision. IT experts are running it through VPN. Thus, it is not easy to break contact with the world. Caretaker government should not take such undesirable decisions.

Form 45 and 47 are echoing across the country. The winning contenders of PTI and their central leadership are still demanding the results as per Form 45.

Sindh President Halim Adil Sheikh has also been released after 171 days of imprisonment. He has also made allegations of rigging in detail in his press conference. According to him, his party had won 22 seats in the National Assembly and 40 seats in the Provincial Assembly. Similarly, the election results of Sindh province were also not recognized by GDA, PTI, Jamaat-e-Islami and MQM Haghiqi. In this sense, the stance of many parties against rigging seems to be common. Although they have not adopted a common path of protest, all are trying to show their strength separately, which is probably why the Election Commission is less worried.

No common platform has yet come into being at the country level. Although Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Mehmood Khan Achakzai have expressed support for PTI's central leader and former chairman Imran Khan.

MQM leader Mustafa Kamal is also criticizing PTI leader Imran Khan and considers him the cause of all problems. MQM has indicated to join the new government alliance.

The name for the new chief minister of Sindh province is yet to be finalized, everyone is suggesting the name of the chief minister by guesswork. It is also possible that some other name will come out apart from the names mentioned. But former chief minister Murad Ali Shah and former minister Nasir Hussain Shah are being declared as favourites. The figures of Khairpur and Dadu have been prominent during the PPP era. After Qaim Ali Shah in the present era, Murad Ali Shah's affiliation has become more established.

Elections were held on February 8, but so far the news about the country's economic situation is very negative due to the delay in government formation. Inflation has increased further, after the election, the caretaker government increased the price of petrol, increased the prices of diesel, which started to increase the prices of food items. Electricity and gas prices have also been increased. It is as if the caretaker government has imposed the burden of energy prices on the people in an effort to make it easier for the incoming government. In such a case, it should have waited for the new government to determine the energy prices, but it was not done.

PML-N, PPP and MQM are silent on this increase because if their government is formed, they will not have to face this difficult decision in the beginning. After the rise in inflation, people are surprised that voting for the continuation of democracy is still hurting them.

Muslim League-N and People's Party have announced the formation of the government in a joint press conference.