Wearing a brown kurta, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf waves with both hands in a half-page ad splashed across all Pak dailies, issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in Pakistan. “One country, one people, one passion, one destination. We are one nation, unite for elections,” reads the text. His is the only ad in the newspapers, with a reference to elections — no other political party has issued any such display ads.But with four days to go before polls, the streets of Lahore are witnessing a sudden activity with all three key parties putting up banners, posters and hoardings.Pakistan Muslim League (Q), the party which helped Musharraf to rule the country for the last five years, and Musharraf’s two main challengers — assassinated Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML (N) — are focusing on Punjab in the last three days of campaigning, since this is the largest province and accounts for more than half of the 342-strong Parliament.Tents have come up since Wednesday, where all three key political parties are holding small corner meetings.At one such tent in Guldasht in eastern Lahore, a group of men sit with voters’ lists and each one is being assigned a group of households. They belong to the Nawaz Sharif ‘s PML (N) and are led by Maqsood Ahmed, local nazim or the political head of district government. It’s almost 9 pm, and a group of young men are surrounding him. “We have to fight to finish the cycle party,” he says, with a reference to PML-Q’s party symbol.About a kilometre away, in another such makeshift office, PPP supporters discuss the day’s door-to-door campaign. “People are not gathering in the meetings, so we have to reach out to them,” says Nafees, 25, who is coordinating the campaign of the local candidate, a woman Samina Khalid. Nafees’s friends, all in their 20s and 30s, are sitting around and discussing the country’s inflation in an animated manner. “Prices of flour and oil have increased and we have to stamp out this government for this,” they say, almost in unison. While no big public rallies or meeting are taking place, PPP acitvist Qasim says, after Benazir’s assasination, they are trying to invoke sympathy in Benazir’s name and anger against the price rise through small meetings and by visiting households.PML-Q’s leader and prime ministerial aspirant Parvez Elahi, whom Musharaf, PPP and PML (N) supporters say, is backing, is meanwhile jetsetting through Punjab. Elahi, the Punjabi politician, whose ambition is to be Pakistan’s next prime minister, has been boarding a chartered Russian helicopter and moves around in expensive bulletproof cars. “PPP and PML (N) leaders will suck you dry,” he tells a gathering in Lahore. PPP’s Asif Zardari, who party activists refer to as senator Zardari, too is on a blitzkrieg through Punjab, including Faisalabad and Lahore, to mobilise votes. His pitch, which he said in a corner meeting, is simple: “People’s party aeigi, aman insaaf aur rozgaar laegi (People’s party will come, bringing peace, justice and employment).”
