Two major political parties—the Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Pakistan People’s Party—had informally launched the election campaign. The Prime Minister, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, took the lead in launching the election campaign in Balochistan and Sindh by holding public gatherings and addressed public meetings in which he had announced packages and development schemes as part of his election speeches. The Prime Minister made major announcements allocating huge funds as usual. The Prime Minister had hardly visited any Sindh town or city except Karachi during his entire tenure and now he started his election campaign, he visited Thatta, Hyderabad and many other townships and cities of Sindh and addressed the people, including party workers. He was the first leader in Pakistan who directed his party workers to prepare for general elections. He gave no indications when the elections will be held. His critics say that these declarations were all mere public announcements and it is not backed by any legal order that the future Government implement the commitments of the Prime Minister. They will not be under any obligations to implement it. There are many instances when the successor governments had ignored the past decisions not backed by the lawful process. There was a classic case of Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline and an agreement was concluded by the PPP Government with Iranian Government with a commitment of soft loan of $ 500 million to build the Pakistan section of gas pipeline. The Iranian spent more than $ two billion on the Iran section of the gas pipeline from Bandar Abbas to Pakistani border at Gabd. When the PML emerged as victor in the last elections, the first and foremost action of the Government was to sabotage that international agreement between the two friendly and neighbourly countries and to this date, it is not implemented. Iran, on its parts, did not knock the doors of international tribunals for violation of the agreement imposing heavy fine on the Pakistan Government.

If the successor Government got the courage and determination to violate the international agreements, then it is very easy to ignore all the public announcements of outgoing leaders for political or financial reasons. The schemes and grants are not backed by any law or legislation and they are all mere announcements and for public consumption only. On the other hand, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari made the formal announcement that his party had ended all the previous compromises with the PML N Government and now it will confront the Government on all fronts. He said that he and his children will lead the election campaign by making Lahore headquarters of the poll campaign. Mr. Zardari told one of the gatherings that his hands were cuffed during the last election campaign and Returning Officers rigged and manipulated the election results inflicting a defeat. He said his party had not lost the election and it was ousted by rigging the polls and manipulating the results. The third party is waiting for the Supreme Court verdict on Panama Leaks and PTI may launch its election campaign after the Supreme Court verdict. In Balochistan, people were found least interested visibly in the election campaign as the pro-establishment parties are sure to win the next elections as usual. The political climate is not conducive in favour of real opposition. The Opposition has a mass appeal and support but may not find means to translate the support into a poll victory in the present political climate. Muslim League has the advantage of being in power and enjoying support of the establishment in the next elections. It seems that real opposition is least interested in election and preferring a political united front for defending the legitimate rights of the people instead of devoting its energies to form a Government in Quetta. In any case, it is premature to predict about the opposition and its role in the next general elections.