With their non-stop rallies, the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have started a new trend in what had been a rather dull run-up to the elections. This has forced the other parties to follow them. However, in terms of generating election related economic activity, the campaigns are far behind the elections in 2013 and 2018.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the youthful PPP chairman, deserves credit for being the first leader to step out for a campaign amid much uncertainty and gloom. Ever since, he has been constantly in the campaign, which he started from Sindh. He has been to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. As PPP’s poster boy, Bilawal has sought to highlight the ways in which he resembles his mother Benazir Bhutto and his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He is keen to revive the party in the Punjab, and his willingness to contest a National Assembly seat in Lahore has enthused many old-timers. This is brave since the PPP has never come close to winning the seat since 1988. His presence in Lahore has encouraged other PPP leaders to come forward and contest elections. Bilawal is now seen focusing on the Punjab. He has been to several districts and addressed big rallies in Lahore, Sahiwal, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Chiniot and Sargodha.

His sister, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, has also hit the campaign trail. She is campaigning for the party in both Sindh and Lahore. Former PPP Lahore president, Mian Misbah-ur Rehman, who had quit several years ago, is contesting the PP-161 as a PPP candidate. He says, “Bilawal told me to file the papers. I could not resist him. I see BB in his face.”

Bilawal also took the lead in announcing the party manifesto when he read out his 10 points on the death anniversary of his mother at Garhi Khuda Bux on December 27. The momentum that this campaign has generated has encouraged some party leaders to claim that it can bag over a dozen National Assembly seats from the Punjab.

In their speeches made in south Punjab, Bilawal and former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani have promised to create a southern Punjab province. This might help the PPP candidates’ chances in the region.

Top PML-N leaders – Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Hamza Shahbaz – launched their campaign a little late. However, they have managed to make an impact. Nawaz and Maryam kick-started the campaign from Hafizabad where they made short speeches in view of the fog and the cold.

The League surprised everyone by changing their campaign strategy last week when Nawaz and Maryam visited NA-130 and adjacent constituencies. They attracted a large number of enthusiastic Lahoris who gathered in and outside the Walled City to catch a glimpse of Sharif, who visited this part of the city after almost a decade. At the same time, Shahbaz Sharif addressed a mammoth gathering in Ahmadpur East, where he promised to make the tehsil a district.

Nawaz Sharif has also addressed huge rallies in Mansehra and Nankana Sahib.

Speaking at corner meetings, Hamza Shahbaz has been promising free electricity units for lifeline consumers.

An important aspect of the PPP and PML-N campaigns is that these have captured TV screens.

Some other PML-N and PPP candidates in the Punjab too have been leading impressive campaigns. This scribe visited NA-73 Daska (formerly NA-75) where Nausheen Iftikhar, the daughter of veteran parliamentarian, Syed Iftikhar-ul Hassan, is doing very well. She came to the spotlight when she contested a by-election after the demise of her father and won against all odds, even as the PTI was ruling the Punjab and the Centre. She is visiting dozens of places every day and her team is using digital media to report her activities on social media networks. At the dera opposite her residence, hundreds of people are present from dawn to dusk.

Likewise, Nadeem Afzal Chan, the PPP stalwart, is running an impressive door-to-door campaign in Bhalwal, Sargodha. Chan is set to give a tough time to the PML-N and the PTI.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Jamaat-i-Islami, MQM-P, Istekham-i-Pakistan Party and the PTI-Parliamentarians are also staging rallies and getting some airtime.

What has been missing is the PTI rallies. The party tried to hold virtual rallies but the disruption of internet services foiled that plan. Gohar Ali Khan, the PTI chairman, addressed a rally in Buner on Wednesday. It was attended by a large crowd. PTI senior vice president Sher Afzal Marwat launched the party’s campaign in Karachi but was then called back and stopped from campaigning.

In Lahore, the PTI supporters have not been as visible. In NA-128, lawyer Salman Akram Raja is going door-to-door. Otherwise, the PTI is absent from the scene.

People in the business of posters and banners say that they are getting fewer orders than in the previous elections. “Panaflex printing is costing Rs 30 per square foot; it was Rs 13 per square foot in 2018,” Abdul Aziz, a printer from Urdu Bazaar tells The News on Sunday. Higher prices, he says, are another factor affecting election activities.

The writer is a senior journalist, teacher of journalism, writer and analyst. His X handle: @BukhariMubasher