- All institutions have their parts to play
The basic and fundamental responsibility of the caretaker set up is to assist and facilitate the Election Commission of Pakistan in holding free, fair and transparent elections and taking care of the day to day running of the government. The developments taken place since the installation of the caretaker governments in the center and the provinces provide irreproachable evidence that they have strictly stuck to their mandatory role and have avoided taking any major policy decisions. On the asking and recommendation of the ECP the caretaker government has changed chief secretaries and IGs of the provinces and the provincial governments are also in the process of taking similar actions at the division and district levels.
The ECP has decided to deploy army personnel within and outside the polling stations to ensure peaceful balloting on the polling day. The process of filing nomination papers and their scrutiny is almost complete after which the political parties will unleash their electoral campaigns. The ECP has also issued a code of conduct for the parties urging strict compliance. The code talks about following the constitution, election laws, rules and guidelines and taking proper permission before public rallies and processions and observance of decorum during election proceedings making it clear that any deviation or violation of the code will be considered illegal or a corrupt practice entailing punitive action.
The foregoing measures have cleared all the haze and misgivings about timely holding of the elections for which the caretaker governments and ECP deserve unqualified appreciation of the nation. Three points of the code of conduct issued by the ECP are extremely important in the backdrop of the charged atmosphere prevailing in the country. One is regarding avoidance by political parties and candidates from expressing any opinion or remark which defames or brings into ridicule the judiciary or the armed forces. Nobody in his right mind should grudge this bar on the conduct of the political parties. Electioneering is about presenting party manifestoes to the electorate to win their franchise and is not supposed to be employed for defaming or bringing into disrepute the state institutions like judiciary which is the most sanctimonious pillar of the state. The second is regarding bar on criticism of the personal lives of the opposing leaders and candidates which read “Criticism of other political parties and opponent candidates shall be confined to their policies and programmes, past record and work. Parties and candidates shall refrain from criticism of any aspect of private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or workers of other parties. Criticism based on unverified allegations and distortion of facts shall be avoided.” This point of the code of conduct expects a civilised behaviour from the political parties and the leaders who aspire to hold public offices. It is an accepted political norm throughout the world that the would-be and aspiring public leaders must stand on a higher moral pedestal.
This time the ECP should make sure that the political leaders are not allowed to get away with their un-implementable and unrealistic promises
The third point which actually reinforces the second point says “The political parties, contesting candidates, election agents and their supporters shall refrain from deliberate dissemination of false and malicious information and shall not indulge in forgeries and disinformation to defame other political parties/leaders. The use of abusive language against the leaders and candidates shall be avoided at all costs.” The stress is on avoiding disseminating of false and malicious information with a view to defame the opponents and refraining from the use of abusive language against each other.
In view of the culture of violence and abuse that has been introduced into the political landscape during the last five years it is imperative to take precautionary measures as many political analyst expect charged electioneering campaigns by the political parties which in the present ambience of confrontation might lead to undesirable violence and bloody clashed among the workers of the rival political parties.
My personal view is that under the prevailing circumstances it would have been much better to bar the political parties from holding rallies and processions that not only disrupt the civic life but can also be instrumental to eruption of violent clashes between the rival political groups and supporters of the candidates. The better option under the peculiar circumstances prevailing in the country would have been to ask the leaders of the political parties to present their manifestoes through the media (electronic channels and the print media). The ECP in collaboration with PTV should have also gone for organising a debate among the leaders of the major political parties in regards to their manifestoes and giving the justification and proper costing of the measures proposed by them so that the people could judge the efficacy and practicability of the steps that the political parties are proposing to stake claims for their franchise.
In this land of the pure the political parties and their leaders have invariably been duping the people by promising everything under the skies and without revealing the resources to implement those programmes. This time the ECP should make sure that the political leaders are not allowed to get away with their un-implementable and unrealistic promises and provide adequate and credible answers for what they claim to do for the electorate.
I think the media also has a very crucial role in this regard. It needs to rise above the polarization that it suffers at the moment and act as a true representative of the society and the fourth pillar of the state. In its educative role it must provide authentic information to the masses as well as unbiased opinion on the issues confronting the people so that they can make informed choices in regards to choosing their representatives. The people on their part also have to exercise utmost discretion while voting by giving preference to merit over all other considerations. Things can change for better only through sincere and collective efforts.
