Pakistan dynasty’s crown jewel breeds resentment

Nawaz Sharif’s party had hoped to do better in Punjab but many voters there chose to abstain, or to pick Khan loyalists instead – Copyright AFP MOHAMMAD MANSOUR

Natasha Zai

Under the dizzying lights and gleaming monuments of Pakistan’s cultural capital Lahore, Sidra Bilal’s mind drifts to her rural hometown, a backwater of broken promises that led her to abstain from this month’s election.

“They’re as different from each other as the sky is from the earth,” said the 27-year-old, who relocated to Lahore six years ago from the hardscrabble town of Head Balloki, 50 kilometres (30 miles) away.

In the February 8 election, the army-backed Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) had been tipped to win a majority, reliant on its traditional support base of Punjab province, where Lahore sits. 

Instead, dejected voters from towns around Punjab chose to abstain or vote for candidates loyal to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, leaving the Sharifs no choice but to forge a shaky coalition in order to clinch power.

In Pakistan’s most populous province, the election result signalled that voters were weary of decades of failed development pledges from the Sharifs for areas outside Lahore.

Bilal’s family are stalwart PML-N supporters and pleaded she cast her ballot for them two weeks ago.

To protest the ongoing dearth of schools and healthcare in her hometown, which had spurred her migration to Lahore, she abstained.

“I did not vote,” said Bilal, who works as an editor. “I could not bring myself to stand with the wrong side.”

– ‘What are they giving us?’ –

Home to around 14 million people, Lahore has sucked up half of Punjab’s development budget in recent years, according to government data.

The investment means less than 10 percent of Lahoris live below the poverty line, but in other parts of Punjab that number jumps to around 70 percent.

“Lahore is a big city, the heart of Pakistan. There is a lot of development here,” 35-year-old Shah Zaman explained from his office at a publishing firm.

But when he makes the 140-kilometre journey to his home near the city of Okara, Zaman said the little work achieved by the PML-N is “mostly useless”.

Three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who often campaigned sporting a Gucci baseball cap, had been expected to sweep into power after analysts say he received the backing of the army, which turned against Khan.

The PML-N however increased their elected seats in the national assembly and Punjab provincial parliament by only slim margins.

Nawaz flew back from years of self-imposed medical exile in London to lead the election campaign after allegedly cutting a deal with the military that saw his graft convictions dissolve.

Now the PML-N are poised to take power only through a coalition, and the prime ministerial position is set to go to Nawaz’s brother Shehbaz, considered softer and more pliable to military influence.

– Eroded voter base –

Faltering loyalty for the Sharif clan in Punjab was in part to blame for the PML-N underperforming, according to Gallup Pakistan analyst Bilal Gilani.

“They were more confident in areas where they’ve traditionally won,” he said. “It is in these territories that they’ve lost more.”

“There was some sort of over-confidence on their part,” he added.

Lahore’s $1.6 billion new metro system scoots commuters across a metropolis of gridlocked roads — but the line ends well before the satellite city of Sheikhupura.

The city was once a PML-N stronghold but the party lost out to a candidate loyal to Khan.

Here residents complain about crumbling infrastructure — problems compounded by a grinding economic crisis pummelling the rupee and sending inflation soaring.

“When I look at Lahore, I want my city to look like that,” said Sani Mushtaq. “Even animals do not live in this place where we have to get by,” the 25-year-old labourer added.

“Look at how filthy and polluted Sheikhupura is,” said Sakina Bibi, 45. “No sewer lines, no gas. What are they giving us? They only want our votes?”