Can the caretakers deliver free and fair elections?

…let’s find out.

On our democratic journey free and fair elections remains the biggest challenge. In seventy years only one credible electoral exercise and that too under a khaki dictator is a serious blot on our credentials and commitment to democracy. Pakistan started off well but then went astray. Somehow no one in authority or power seems interested in the rule of the ballot. Ayub Khan the first khaki dictator is blamed for this political mess that we face today which was then compounded by the third and fourth usurpers.

After taking over the government in October 1958, Ayub Khan disbanded all political parties. His EBDO (Elected Bodies Disqualification Ordinance) was draconian in many ways. He abrogated the unanimously agreed constitution of 1956 and came up with his own version with formation of a new political entity called Convention Muslim League. Those who rejected his one sided document decided to break off calling themselves Council Muslim League. It was this League that convinced Madar-e-Millat Fatima Jinnah to challenge the hegemony of the dictator in the first Presidential elections held on January 02, 1965. Ayub Khan was elected through misuse of state apparatus. Big business and bureaucrats who were the beneficiaries of his rule also supported him. The country was divided between have and have nots.

In the 1977 elections Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) was also blamed for electoral irregularities. The PNA (Pakistan National Alliance) movement not only toppled his government it also resulted in the third martial law headed by Mulla Zia who had the support of the right wing parties. Since then there have been ten manipulated and fruitless electoral exercises. In August 2014 Kaptaan decided on a long march and dharna demanding resignation of the Prime Minister followed by free and fair elections. The Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk commission that deliberated on the conduct of the elections in 2013 pointed out serious irregularities. Unfortunately not one of them have been corrected. The electoral reforms bill remains un-implemented while the next elections are round the corner without major changes it will be another futile exercise. Till the promulgation of the 1973 constitution bureaucrats were appointed Chief Election Commissioners now it is the domain of the judges who have failed to deliver a credible ballot.

Hopes are being pinned on the caretakers. In the original 1973 constitution such a provision did not exist. When the Benazir Bhutto government was dismissed in 1990 Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was appointed the first caretaker Prime Minister by Baboo Ghulam Ishaq Khan who had managed to become the President. There was some kind of clandestine understanding, that thile Mian Nawaz Sharif would continue as Chief Minister Punjab while Jatoi Sahib would become the PM. In the end Mian Sahib walked away with both the trophies. Moin Qureshi was an imported caretaker whose name was proposed by Benazir. After the elections on October 1993 she was back in power at the centre while the coveted slot of CM Punjab was denied to her. Malik Meraj Khalid was an honest politician, a rare breed in our times but was ineffective. President Farooq Leghari wanted to keep Benazir out which paved the way for Mian Sahib’s absolute majority in 1977 elections. Muhammad Mian Soomro in 2008 and Justice Mir Hazar Khan Khoso in 2013 remained equally spineless and so did the provincial Caretaker CMs.

The big question is how will the 7^th caretaker PM deliver free and fair elections in 2018 when all his predecessors have failed to do so? Perhaps of all the caretakers Moin Qureshi was the ablest and most neutral. As PM he decided to visit his ancestral graveyard in Kasur. Overnight before he arrived there the place was upgraded with marble slabs on the graves of his parents. He was taken aback but did not know what to make of it. Where did the funds come from and who approved them? Qureshi Sahib was clueless, despite his best intentions.

As a child growing up in Lahore I could not imagine of no go areas’, we were told they existed only in Karachi where MQM controlled the city. When they tried to enter Punjab /Lahore they had to face serious resistance from the ‘Gullu Butts’. Even Kaptaan’s long march container came under attack in Gujranwala. Javed Hashmi came to the rescue as he knew the local ‘Bhalli Butts’ otherwise the dharna would have ended there. All such areas have been cleared in Karachi.90 the headquarter of Altaf Hussain and his tenor networks has been neutralised. The recent by-election in NA-120 should be an eye opener for the elections in 2018. PML-N will win hands down not because of its votes but rather due to its vandals. Democracy and vandalism cannot co-exist. GHQ launched political outfits like PML-N, MQM, PML-Q etc diehard. The ballot is too soft to get rid of their roguery otherwise Dr. Yasmin Rashid would have carried the day on Sept 17, 2017. For the forces of democracy this should be a makeup call before it is too late. Under the existing circumstances there can be no free and fair elections