No election symbols for parties sans internal polls, submission of accounts

Feeling the heat of the intra-party polls by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday made a landmark decision towards achievement of true democratic order in the country by announcing to refuse allotment of election symbols to political parties who failed to submit their annual statement of accounts or did not hold intra-party polls.
“The political parties that fail to submit their annual statement of accounts in terms of Article 13 of the said order or fail to submit the certificate with regard to intra-party election in terms of Article 12 of the said order shall not be entitled to obtaining election symbols,” said a statement issued by the ECP. The ECP decision is likely to trouble major government and opposition political parties who carry no tradition of intra-party elections and submit false certificates with the ECP each year of intra-party elections having been held and the party’s office-bearers having been elected “unopposed”. Interestingly, the ECP never counterchecked any claim by the party chiefs and the certificates of intra-party polls were always accepted without any probe. The intra-party elections have never been a priority for major political parties, as no such polls are conducted and only a statement is submitted with the ECP by most of the parties.
However, experts and analysts doubt the ECP’s commitment to enforce the laws properly. Eminent social scientist Dr Rasool Bakhsh Raees told Pakistan Today that though it was a welcome step by the ECP to attain the desired level of democracy in Pakistan, it was difficult to implement. “The democratic order in Pakistan needs to be reformed through enforcement of relevant laws because people don’t follow the democratic norms. Effective accountability, transparency and enforcement of laws are a must to attain the desired level of democratic order in the country,” he added.
Raees said if the ECP was able to implement the rule of its laws, it would go a long way to transform the democratic order into true democracy. “But I am doubtful that the ECP would be able to enforce the laws in Pakistan because the leadership of political parties is so much powerful, they follow no rules or norms. There is a strong hold of families on democratic parties and they don’t allow anyone to even think of contesting polls against them. If anyone appears to challenge their autocracy, they sideline such a politician,” he added.