February
16, 2008 Pakistan Parties Wage
Bitter Media Wars, Campaigning Ends By Muhammad Najeeb
Islamabad
Pakistan political parties were engaged in a bitter media
campaigning, charging one another of betraying the people as
electioneering for the Monday polls ended Saturday.
Two factions of Pakistan Muslim League (PML) in their respective
newspaper adverts asked the people not to vote for those who
deceived Pakistan.
"Do not vote for those who fled the country for their own
interests," reads an ad from The PML-Quaid, which supports President
Pervez Musharraf. The ad was published in all major Urdu dailies.
"Had we succeeded in creating Pakistan if Muslim League vote was
divided during the division of sub-continent?" reads another PML-Q
ad published in the daily Jang and other newspapers.
The advertisement in Urdu referring to the PML-N of former prime
minister Nawaz Sharif says a faction of people was dividing the PML
vote to benefit anti-state elements.
The PML-Q is a pro-Musharraf faction, formed after a split in the
then ruling PML following a bloodless military coup in 1999 led by
then army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf. The coup toppled Sharif's
elected government and also forced him to over eight-year exile in
Saudi Arabia and Britain.
Another PML-Q ad asks people not to vote for those who are siding
with the party that is responsible for splitting the country into
two - a reference to creation of Bangladesh, which PML-Q blames on
the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Advertisements by the PML-N carried photographs of deposed chief
justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and leading lawyers being beaten and
pushed around by personnel of law enforcing agencies. "You will not
see this again," reads the advertisement.
Without naming the rival party, the ad warns the PML-Q of its end.
"Doomsday for you has arrived. Enough is enough. You suspended
judges, killed people who were studying the holy Quran, you violated
human rights, you violated constitution... now get ready for the
doomsday."
There are several ads by other parties like the Pakistan Peoples
Party PPP, Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) and some by individual
candidates. But all of them are directly seeking votes during the
Feb 18 polls, unlike the ads of two Muslim League faction.
The four major political parties - the PPP, both factions of the PML
and the MQM - have also purchased chunks of air time in electronic
media.
The audiovisuals on all TV channels have background songs by leading
folk singers like Abrarul Haq and Shaukat Ali.
The PML-Q's ad starts with Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah
calling upon youth to work for the country.
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