<\/p>\n
ISLAMABAD: Voicing concerns over the prevailing political uncertainty in the country, representatives of the country\u2019s mainstream political parties, civil society, media and academia on Wednesday cast doubt over the fairness of the upcoming general elections.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a \u201cconsultative session\u201d on \u201cHow to ensure free and fair general elections?\u201d organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat), the speakers were found unanimous in their views that some powerful circles in the country wanted to delay the elections for an indefinite period on one pretext or the other.<\/p>\n
The speakers also expressed concerns over the increasing role of the \u201cmilitary establishment in the political and electoral sphere\u201d and feared that the events of May 9 could be used to shrink the space for democratic and political forces and might be used for \u201cmanipulations\u201d in the elections.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan People\u2019s Party (PPP) Secretary General Farhatullah Babar said there were serious doubts whether elections would be held at all. He said recent statements by important political leaders and refusal by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to give election schedule was raising doubts in the minds of the people.<\/p>\n
\nSay some power circles want to delay polls for an indefinite period<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Mr Babar was of the view that the political parties and the civil society should compel the ECP to announce a categorical date for the elections even if it wanted to delay it till January next year.<\/p>\n
Expressing his concern over the increasing role of the \u2018establishment\u2019 in the political matters, Mr Babar said: \u201cThe military establishment must be asked to cease political engineering.\u201d He also asked the ECP to take notice of such \u2018engineering\u2019.<\/p>\n
He also called for an independent investigation into the recent \u201cdisappearances of political activists for weeks and then reappearing only to denounce their previous political leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs a caretaker set-up necessary at all? Does it exist in other democracies?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
He regretted that neither the parliament nor the ECP had come out with any inquiry report into the failure of the RTS [Result Transmission System] in the last elections. He also called for exploring the implementation of compulsory voting and introducing a \u201cNone of the Above (NOTA)\u201d option in the ballot paper to enhance the democratic process.<\/p>\n
Former Punjab governor Shahid Hamid was of the opinion that the president had the authority to announce the date for the elections of the National Assembly, but regretted that he had not done so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not hopeful that we will have free and fair elections in the country whenever it will be held,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ishaq Khakwani, representing the newly-established Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), shared his extensive experience in elections, and declared that \u201cpolls and government formation in Pakistan not possible without engineering.\u201d He said no political party had ever refused support from the establishment.<\/p>\n
Rasheed Chaudhry, a representative of the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), emphasised the need for an independent delimitation commission and separation of the ECP\u2019s powers from judicial authority.<\/p>\n
Shoaib Shaheen of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) highlighted the cases of former party leaders Usman Dar<\/a> and Sadaqat Abbasi<\/a> and lamented the growing \u201cerosion of respect for state institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Shaheen pointed out that trust and faith in the system were diminishing, exacerbated by heightened political polarisation, which he noted had led to increased violence. He called for a thorough investigation into the events of May 9 through a judicial commission.<\/p>\n
Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry of PML-N denied the impression that his party wanted to delay the elections.<\/p>\n
Executive Director of Gallup Pakistan Bilal Gilani stated that probably the country had never faced such an uncertain political situation before the polls.<\/p>\n
Mr Gilani noted that while the election was a significant issue, 89 per cent of the people considered \u201cinflation\u201d as more important issue than the elections and 50 per cent of the people believed that \u2018democracy is falling short of delivering\u2019. He said 75 per cent of the population believed that they would not have a better time in future.<\/p>\n
Muhammad Ali Durrani, a former federal minister in the military regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf, stated that in Pakistan democracy belonged to the \u201celectables\u201d and not the people. He called for simultaneous elections at the federal, provincial and local government levels.<\/p>\n
Senior journalist Mujibur Rehman Shami underscored a core issue plaguing Pakistan\u2019s political landscape \u2014 the reluctance of political parties to accept defeat gracefully. He also highlighted the issue of institutional interference as a significant obstacle to a smooth electoral process.<\/p>\n
In his introductory remarks, Pildat president Ahmed Bilal Mehboob narrated a history of manipulation of Pakistan\u2019s earlier general elections. He said Pildat remained committed to fostering discussions and facilitating informed dialogue on the crucial issue of free and fair elections in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
The event concluded with a commitment to continue advocating for electoral transparency and the protection of democratic values in the country.<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD: Voicing concerns over the prevailing political uncertainty in the country, representatives of the country\u2019s mainstream political parties, civil society, media and academia on Wednesday cast doubt over the fairness of the upcoming general elections. Speaking at a \u201cconsultative session\u201d on \u201cHow to ensure free and fair general elections?\u201d organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/121032354fd9243.png?r=103703","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}