Rani Singh

The parties are now on the campaign trail though there is no Super Tuesday scenario; more like a free-for-all. Adding to the chaos, election-watchers never know who is going to be harassed, killed, or arrested next. A sign-of-the times conference took place yesterday in the tribal North West Frontier Province where the safety of voters’ lives was the subject, with the Provincial Home Secretary offering up assurances on security for punters and the media. An important player in the NWFP is the MMA, (the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal group), which is made up of six religious parties including the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Party chiefs launched their manifestos at Imperial College in London this week. No slick Anglo-American electioneering with carefully choreographed speeches and prepared questions here, this was raw Pakistani politics where missiles fire unguided. The chiefs each had 15 minutes to speak and had been given specific questions to address, which they mostly ignored. They ran over time and had to be restrained. The evening quickly degenerated into a slanging match with personal attacks. A panellist mocked Imran Kahn’s political ambition, calling him a “Playboy.” His representative, Shahid Dastgir Khan, stood up and raised his hand. “I object to my leader being called a playboy!” he complained.