The Lahore High Court’s ruling on Thursday to hold Punjab’s local government elections on party-basis as opposed to the pleas of the provincial government has landed all the political parties and stakeholders in a quandary.
The political leaders from all the mainstream parties were taking it easy under the impression that LB polls if held at all will be held on non-party basis. As such the parties never bothered to start preparation for elections, let alone initiating an elaborate process of selecting candidates on the local level.
Now when the LHC in its ruling has declared LB polls on non-party basis as being violation of the Constitution of Pakistan and so turned down the government pleas, the ruling party, PML-N, as well as other parties are in a catch-22 situation.
Even other parties are crying foul over the schedule issued by the ECP under pressure from judiciary. The political analysts say the elections on party basis will further complicate situation for the parties having real stakes in the elections.
Even the ruling PML-N is not immune from these complications and must be feeling quite unnerved. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has called a meeting of party leaders on Thursday to discuss the aftermaths of the LHC ruling.
It is very much possible that the PML-N may file a petition with the Supreme Court against the LHC’s decision to buy time and defend its earlier position. In case it won’t, it will need time to amend laws that promise elections on non-party basis.
The ECP has issued schedule for election in Punjab fixing December 7 for the much-awaited and controversial polls. Not much time has left if the elections are to be held on party-basis. The process involves selection of candidates and awarding tickets to them before they could start campaigning for elections.
The situation is complex for the ruling party despite vast resources at its disposal. Initially, it never bothered to launch the tiresome selection process in the hope that candidates would join its rank being the ruling party. There was an impression that it would require only to pick just one candidate from those in the race. This is not entirely a misplaced impression as candidates at this level like to join the ruling party.
But now the PML-N will have to go through all the travails involving selection process that carries the specter of opening up a real Pandora box.
Same is the case with other parties – the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) – and others which filed petitions making the case for party-based local government polls.
They were anticipating that the leftover candidates would come over to their side, so they would not be spared from the rigours of undertaking any formal selection.
“We hoped that candidates would automatically filter down after their selection by other partiers. Now we have to pick candidates for ourselves, give them tickets and party symbols. This is a complex task for which no party is ready,” maintained a senior politician from the city.
In Sindh, the PPP has already problems with the schedule. It has contended that after allotting symbols, the party candidates will be left with only four days to campaign which is not enough or practical. The LB polls are to be held on November 27 in Sindh
Meanwhile, all parliamentary parties united ranks to pass a resolution terming schedule for the LB polls not good enough to organise free and fair elections.
