By election 2022
After the dismissal of Prime minister Imran Khan from his position 20 seats in Punjab provincial assemblies were up for grabs. By elections 2022 were held on 17th July where 15 out of 20 seats were won by PTI. This showcased the reigning popularity of PTI over other political parties. As a result of the current victory through massive people’s support, Imran Khan has called for early elections.
Imran khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, lost his position on 10 April after a no confidence movement against him. There are many reasons stated by the opposition to justify his loss of position including bad governance and economic failures under Khan’s regime.
However, according to Imran khan’s narrative, his loss of position was due to involvement of foreign powers in Pakistan’s political matters. Whatever the case may be, the current change in power dynamics had a major impact on Pakistan’s politics.
According to a survey by Gallup Pakistan, in January 2022 the Sharif brothers were the most popular politicians in Pakistan where Nawaz Sharif had a rating of 55%, Shahbaz 51% while Imran Khan had a rating of 35%. While, 45% Pakistanis believed that Imran Khan governance was bad, still they believed that he would be able to complete his term. Khan’s government had faced most criticism by the largest province Punjab, however, people in KPK and Balochistan were happy with Khan’s government.
Imran khan had lost its popularity mainly due to rising inflation but after the regime change statistics changed when the new government was unable to control the rising economic crisis also.
After Imran Khan, Shahbaz Sharif rose to power and became the new Prime Minister of Pakistan. Since that day, the current government is trying to live up to their words and bring economic prosperity to the country that they promised. However, it has been seen that the current government is facing problems in this regard. And losing its support as evident through by election 2022.
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Pakistan is facing economic challenges at the moment and in order to live up to the challenges the newly appointed Prime Minister has been in constant talks with the IMF to revive a $6 billion bailout package. This would help the country to stand on its ground to achieve economic stability.
But the problem emerged when the government had to impose additional taxes, cut off subsidies on basic necessities like fuel, gas and electricity. These new changes were imposed in order to meet the terms and conditions for the IMF agreement but in return the new government has lost its positive opinion among people.
This also explains the PTI victory in by election 2022. Before the no confidence movement, it was established that Imran khan’s bad policies and mismanagement at the governmental level have been a source of inflation and economic crisis in the country. But now after several months, it is evident that even the new government is unable to control the situation.
Secondly, the newly appointed Prime Minister and his cabinet members have money laundering cases against them with 16 cabinet members on bail. This marks a question on the legitimacy of the government that propagated the stance that Khan and his regime were mishandling the government but they themselves have a cabinet of people facing corruption charges.
The last thing that gave away the by election 2022 in hands of PTI was the violent act of the government against PTI’s call for dharna against the new government. The violence induced by the government against the common people in order to stop the protest showed that the right of freedom of speech was taken away from people.
Sweeping victory in by election 2022 shows the support of Punjab towards Imran Khan. This is the same province that according to Gallup was most dissatisfied by Imran Khan’s governance and supported the Sharif brothers. Results of by election 2022 show radical change in the political arena. Through the current statistics, it is obvious that this regime change has helped Imran Khan regain the popularity he had started to lose during his tenure. In some contexts it might be even more popular than it was ever before the regime change.
Moreover Situation get worse after when 22 July is the day of selection who will get win the Providence Punjab as PTI announced the candidate Pervaiz Ilahi for the Chief Minister of Punjab on the other Hand PDM wanted that Hamza Shahbaz will continue ruling in Punjab.
But what actually happened? Hamza Shahbaz was elected as the Chief Minister of Punjab with 179 votes, but later the Supreme Court overturned the decision of Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mizari and once more announced Hamza Shahbaz as the Trusty Chief Minister of Punjab. 187 votes were casted, but 10 of them were rejected because PMLQ Party head Chahudry Shujhat ordered his MNAs not to support Imran Khan’s nominee for the Punjab Minister. Everyone is now focused on the Supreme Court of Pakistan as cases there are currently being heard.
