Gloves are coming off in political campaigns

"You
e a pretender, not a real leader!".
"Oh yeah!? Well you have really bad body odour.".
These might sound like comments passed during a schoolyard altercation between nine- year olds, but these are a sampling of the kind of accusations being hurled nowadays between leaders of major political parties in the country.
The Pakistan Peoples Party, Awami National Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement have so far managed a few public gatherings, given that all three parties are in the crosshairs of terrorists.
But, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have been holding large rallies on a daily basis and their leaders have been using these opportunities to take increasingly personal jibes at each other.
Taking note of the situation, the Election Commission of Pakistan finally swung into action on Friday as it reiterated that candidates must refrain from making personal attacks against opponents. Even if chiding from Fakhru bhai does tone down the verbal bashing at congregations, there are other avenues for punching opponents.
Some weeks back, when political party advertisements hit the airwaves, they had sufficed with blowing their respective bugles.
The Pakistan Peoples Party was touting social security initiatives such as the Benazir Income Support Programme and the Waseela-e-Haq programme. The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) was reminding voters of the nuclear tests at Chaghai.
On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Q and Pervez Musharafs All Pakistan Muslim League were reminiscing over economic growth of the early 2000s. The new party on the block, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was also primarily focused on highlighting its own policies for an economic and social revival.
But the gloves are now coming off. Party commercials are now taking jibes at opponents and the rhetoric spewing from the most vocal political leaders is also becoming increasingly jagged and targeted.
A recently released ad for the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) is reminding people of various deals with prospective Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that would have generated 24,000 megawatts of electricity, had these deals not been scrapped by the PML(N)-led Government in 1997.
Soon after this TV commercial hit the airwaves, former Finance Minister Sartaj Aziz wrote a strong-worded rebuttal in a local newspaper alleging that the PPP-led government worsened the electricity mix, increasing dependence on imported furnace oil.
The PML-N has also launched a campaign that alleges corruption, misgovernance bad governance and nepotism in all parts of the country besides Punjab over the past five years.
Not to be outdone by the long-time political stalwarts, the PTI has also unveiled a fresh set of TV commercials that show leaders of other political parties travelling with extensive entourages. The accompanying voice over alleges billions of rupees in corruption along with bad governance during previous tenures of the PPP and PML-N.
According to officials at the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), the Election Commission of Pakistan does not have guidelines regarding party advertisements; it only has only a code of conduct for individual candidates. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has issued certain guidelines for such commercials, but those are geared towards ensuring that no single party is able to dominate the airwaves at the expense of others.
Effectively, there is little holding back the political parties from going at each other with verbal lashings in the days leading up to the Election Day. As that day approaches, the content of such ads will in all likelihood, get harsher and moremuch jagged.
Without much to rein them in as the Election Day approaches, the fiery remarks of politicians and their campaign managers will only heat up further.