Elections on time

Is there a better alternative?

Even the Army wants timely elections. So the military spokesman tells us.

The government is not only at the end of its term, but also at the end of its tether. Hence it is welcome news that the military has given its NOC (no objection certificate) for the elections to be held on time.

The politicians can pride themselves of their vast propaganda machines well oiled by enormous amounts of funds. But nothing beats the spin doctoring of the military.

What was the need for the Director General of the ISPR (Inter-services Public Relations) to issue a carefully worded statement, ostensibly a Q and A session with journalists, at this juncture? We are informed by the major general who heads it that the military had been supporting the incumbent democratic setup for the past five years and will continue to do so.

No one can challenge the fact that the military has studiously given the civilians space. Admittedly in the past it has sacked elected governments for much less. But this does not mean that the government has had a free reign without always looking over its shoulder for Bonapartists.

The PPP-led coalition prides itself on completing its full term and announcing the elections when it deems fit. This is certainly a first in Pakistan. And credit is due to President Asif Zardari as well as General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. More so to Zardari for assiduously avoiding to step on the military’s toes.

Unlike his predecessors Zardari is a deal maker rather than a deal breaker. Nawaz Sharif, paradoxically enough, despite representing the Punjab, the heartland of the army, has had an uneasy relationship with the khakis.

As prime minister he never got along with any of the military chiefs, but even while in opposition Sharif, to say the least, has awkward relations with the present military leadership.

His Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali has done no service to him by taking on the military hierarchy much too often. His boss has often restrained him but the damage by then had been done.

Even when elections are about to be announced deep mistrust persists in the PML-N circles about the intentions of the ubiquitous establishment. The conventional thinking prevalent in the PML-N is that the military is somehow uneasy about the ‘inevitable victory’ of the party at the elections. In this context, both Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri are painted as military-sponsored trial balloons out to cut into the vote bank of the PML-N.

The other day in my television programme, the PML-N spokesman Mushahidullah Khan wondered loudly as to why Qadri’s long marches were confined to the Central Punjab? Similarly Rana Sanaullah, the Punjab law minister, claims rather unconvincingly that Imran’s balloon has deflated and Qadri’s too will meet the same fate.

Of course it is ludicrous to assume that somehow Zardari and the military are in cahoots to block Nawaz in the next elections. However, if Imran and to a lesser extent Qadri cut into the Sharif vote bank the ultimate beneficiary will be Zardari. If Zardari is deriving political mileage from the prevailing situation he cannot be blamed for it.

With the military endorsing timely elections and the Supreme Court walking the talk by showing the door to Qadri, theoretically speaking elections will be held sooner than later. But the situation on the ground is still germane with uncertainty.

The Election Commission tasked with holding free and fair elections is not helping matters by its increasingly impractical edicts in the name of transparency. In the light of articles 62 and 63 of the constitution some of the preconditions being laid out by the Commission might blackball quite a few known faces from the race.

For example, under the new regulations incumbent members of the national and provincial assemblies are to give in writing their major achievement as public representatives and also to append a list of development projects undertaken with public money. How and under what criteria such data will be scrutinised has not been spelt out.

It is fair enough to ask those who are contesting elections to declare their and their dependents’ assets and the amount of tax they contribute to the exchequer. However, the use of such provisions arbitrarily can give draconian powers to the Commission.

That is why, perhaps ominously, the Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ibrahim inquired from a journalist whether elections are going to be held at all. He should have been answering this question rather than asking it.

Perhaps the CEC was wondering aloud whether the elections can be held when the country was infested with rampant terrorism. Post carnage of Hazara Shias in Quetta the situation has become even more precarious.

Those protesting against the ethnic cleansing of the Hazaras were able to paralyse life in the country. Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi airports were blocked for hours as a result of sit-ins. The demonstrators proved beyond doubt that only a few hundred people in each of the major cities of the country can bring life to a standstill.

The demand of the Hazaras to hand over Quetta to the army was augural. Ironically during Musharraf’s rule the omnipresent agencies were the bane of the province.

It is a sad reflection on the so-called public representatives of Balochistan that they have little relevance to the problems of the province. In fact they are part of the problem rather than the solution.

The army spokesman has also categorically denied that the military has any truck with the banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that claimed responsibility for massacre of the Hazaras. Despite such denials, outfits like LJ and LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) are perceived by many to be the Army’s cat’s paw.

But why blame the military alone? Substantial swathes of political and religious parties as well as section of the media are sympathetic towards such jihadi organisations.

Elections will be held and should be held on time. Any other alternative is less attractive. Shahbaz Sharif’s warning that if present law and order situation continued Pakistan may turn into a ‘failed state’ is alarming.

After all Sharif is the chief executive of the largest province. He should come out clean on allegations that the PML-N has tacit political alliances in Punjab with the very elements responsible for pushing the country to the brink of abyss.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today