The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has emerged victorious in Punjab by-polls, which has badly damaged the opposition’s February 8 narrative as the Shehbaz-led party has grabbed most seats from Punjab province.
While speaking at a program on Naya Daur TV, senior analyst Muzamal Suharwardy said that the leadership of Pakistan Teehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) should be questioned about why they didn’t nominate any candidate to contest against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. “However, the PTI caused uproar when the PPP's Aseefa Bhutto Zardari became a member of the National Assembly unopposed and even alleged that their candidate was abducted prior to the election, but this time they didn’t even bother to nominate their candidate against Bilawal,” he added.
Suharwardy said that the PTI gained victory in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by-polls and the PML-N in Punjab; therefore, we can say the results were the same as in the February 8 general elections.
The analyst said that the PTI voters are depressed right now, and perhaps they have realized that their party will not come into power again. That’s why they didn’t come out of their houses to cast their votes in by-polls.
While responding to a question about the detention of PTI leader Shafique Gujjar, he said that Gujjar was arrested because of his criminal history, adding that the detention of political leaders is not appropriate.
In response to a question regarding the death of a PML-N worker who lost his life when clashes erupted between PML-N and PTI workers during by-polls in Narowal, the analyst said that it is a bitter truth that the lives of any political party's workers have no worth, and soon this matter will vanish from the media.
Suharwardy said that the Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Malik Shehzad Ahmed Khan has summoned a full court meeting to discuss measures to protect judicial independence but the LHC will suggest measures and will not write any letter to the Supreme Judicial Council, like judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) wrote.
The analyst said that the case of IHC judges will become weak if judges of the LHC and Sindh High Court do not stand with them.
While responding to a question about JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazl-Ur-Rehman, Suharwardy said that Fazl is playing on both sides of wickets to keep him politically alive. Fazl is supporting the government in KP, but he is with opposition in Balochistan, he added.