What of democracy and people?
So Khawaja Saad takes his case to the Supreme Court, but the fallout of the tribunal’s shock disqualification remains just as difficult to call. And no matter how clean the Court, just like the Tribunal, finds Khawaja sb, it will not be able to give him much of a lifeline if the election is not proved to be ‘free, fair and transparent’. So there’s only limited time to be bought there. But a re-election also complicates the situation.
Saad is right that his vote bank remains intact. And while he would certainly have lost a chunk in case of wilful rigging, the present situation might even enhance it. He might even snatch the victim card from PTI. And then he’s got the cantonment board polls momentum on his side. PTI, on the other hand, continues to celebrate Saad’s ouster as vindication of its claim. And, giving credit where it’s due, the party did fight long and hard, even though their claim went beyond negligence on part of the election staff. But the party has lost some of its tailwind of late. The Karachi by-election, and then the cantonment polls, both saw PTI humbled. Claiming victory upon the Tribunal’s verdict and then, in the worst case scenario, going on to lose the re-election would knock yet more wind out of its sails.
However, the PTI’s own take remains detached from others’. Khan sb is convinced these voting irregularities will form a pattern, and stay orders or no, one by one all four wickets will fall. He’s even convinced that the rot will be traced all the way to the prime minister, and 2015 will indeed be the year of the next general election. The new vote, of course, will see PTI come to power. Yet from the common man’s point of view, this exercise in democracy is increasingly a fight for power, not representative governance. And that is the most ironic part of it. If PML-N and PTI will remember the essence of democracy, and their duty as public representatives, they might revisit their priorities.
