Whom does Punjab belong to?

Our media pundits always portray Nawaz Sharif as the sole leader of Punjab and PML-N as the dominant political force in Punjab. A closer look at the facts and figures and one can find out that this too is an eye-wash created by the media. For its limited nationwide penetration, PML-N needs steroids of the media to rally its limited base. For this a lot of myths have been created about it, the biggest being its dominance in Punjab.

If results of 2008 elections are anything to go by, N is no where close to the dominant status that we are made to believe. We have taken NA results as a benchmark because the larger constituency size makes them more representative of a district. Here are the facts:

  1. Of 36 districts in Punjab, N one at least 1 seat in 26 districts, PPP won at least 1 seat in 24 districts.
  2. N has more than 50% of seats in 11 out of 36 districts, PPP has more than 50% seats in 9 of 36 districts.
  3. N swept 4 districts, PPP 2.
  4. Of 5 big cities of Punjab, N is far behind PPP in terms of number of seats in Faisalabad (2nd largest) and Multan (4th largest).
  5. In districts north of Okara, N did not win a single seat in 4 districts - of total of 22 districts. For the same area, PPP did not win a single seat in 9 seats.
  6. In districts comprising Okara and South, PPP did not win a single seat in only 2 districts (of total 14 distrcits - almost 40% population of Punjab). In comparison, N didn't win a single NA seat in 6 districts of the same area.
  7. PML-N won 60 NA seats (41%) compared to PPP's 45 seats (31%).
  8. For Provincial Assembly N won 111 seats (37%) compared to 82 seats by PPP (28%).
Above statistics clearly indicate that just when PML-N is the largest party in Punjab in terms of parliamentary presence, it is far from being the dominant force in Punjab.

The media anchors and columnists who are trying to portray Punjab as a one-party province are doing a great disservice to Pakistani Federation on two grounds.
1. It pitches any issue between ruling coalition and PML-N as a clash between Punjab vs Rest (something that is not true based on political map of Punjab shown above).
2. It is undermining the national out-reach of PPP, for now the only national party of Pakistan. Not only that but when it comes to national out-reach (till next elections prove otherwise) even Q has greater national outreach than N.

This smear propaganda coming from the saviors of "Pakistan's ideology" and democrats (like Nusrat Javed and Talat Husain) is, deliberately or unconsciously, a very sinister attempt to make Pakistani political landscape more divisive on ethnic/ regional grounds and must be checked in the larger interest of the Federation.

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