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Mirror Mirror on the wall, who\u2019s the unfairest of them all?<\/em><\/p>\n Pakistan has had 11 direct general elections so far, with the 12th edition due tomorrow (Feb 8). In theory, this democratic activity is supposed to put the representatives chosen by the masses in charge, which in turn are expected to put the country back on track.<\/p>\n But despite nearly a dozen elections in the bag, general elections in Pakistan do not rid the country of its long running ailments. If anything, they create more strife within political parties.<\/p>\n One big reason that happens is due to the system being \u2018rigged\u2019 or \u2018manipulated\u2019 in favour of some blue-eyed flavour-of-the-month types, but against certain undesirables no more in the good books of the powers that be.<\/p>\n In the piece below, based on the input given by various political analysts, we have ranked five such elections that history tells us are widely seen as the \u2018dirtiest\u2019 or the most unfair of them all.<\/p>\n The four elections during the 10-year period between 1988 and 1997 followed a clear trend. Worried about Benazir Bhutto, the state would either try to curb her popularity or help Nawaz Sharif to the prime minister\u2019s office.<\/p>\n However, once in the top seat, Sharif would get embroiled in power struggles of his own \u2014 if not directly with the military then with its favoured people in civilian<\/a> positions. When one was out of favour, the other automatically became the blue-eyed, or the lesser of the two headaches, to take over, and was also allowed to by the state.<\/p>\n This happened for the last time in this decade in 1997 when Sharif secured a landslide victory, winning 137 of the total 217 National Assembly seats, almost doubling his haul of 73 seats in the previous elections. But far more staggering than Nawaz\u2019s meteoric rise was the magnitude with which Benazir\u2019s haul shrank.<\/p>\n From winning 89 seats in 1993, her PPP could bag a mere 18 four years later \u2014 a depletion of almost 80 per cent.<\/p>\n While the killing of Benazir\u2019s brother Murtaza Bhutto a few months before the elections as well as allegations of corruption against her husband Asif Ali Zardari were expected<\/a> to hurt PPP\u2019s popularity to an extent, but not by the margin eventually seen. This was made possible through a crackdown in the aftermath of the previous Benazir government\u2019s dismissal as well as the arrests<\/a> of Zardari and party loyalists.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 1997 elections were quite controversial,\u201d historian and satirist Nadeem F. Paracha told Dawn.com<\/em>. \u201cAn elected government was sent packing [in late 1996] and a crackdown was launched against the PPP, due to which Nawaz Sharif got an overwhelming two-thirds majority in the parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe competition was controlled,\u201d another senior journalist Tahir Mehdi corroborated. \u201cThe PPP was cowed down so much with the Murtaza Bhutto [assassination] and Farooq Leghari was the president. The entire election campaign was based on this [narrative] that Zardari was \u2018Mr 10 per cent\u2019 and very corrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n The 1985 elections were originally supposed to be held in 1977 when General Ziaul Haq staged a military coup, promising the nation that general elections would be held within 90 days.<\/p>\n Eight years after his 90-day promise, the elections did happen but under quite unusual circumstances \u2014 the likes of which were never seen before and have never been seen since.<\/p>\n Dubbed the \u2018partyless\u2019 polls, the 1985 elections were unique in the sense that no political parties of the time were allowed to field their candidates, thanks to a timely amendment to the 1973 Constitution.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, just one party (PTI) is being obstructed but in 1985 the entire election was held on a nonpartisan basis,\u201d recalled senior analyst Nusrat Javeed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 1985 elections were the ones that corrupted and damaged the entire electoral system of parliamentary democracy, parties, administration, etc,\u201d Tahir Mehdi explained. \u201cEven today, this practice of independent candidates joining political parties after the elections \u2026 the root cause of this evil was in 1985 elections.\u201d<\/p>\n Another veteran journalist, Mazhar Abbas was of the view that the 1985 polls were not only rigged, they even damaged the fabric of the country\u2019s society. \u201cNon-party-based elections in itself is a form of pre-poll rigging,\u201d he said in an interview with Dawn News English<\/em>. \u201cThat approach divided the society into feudals, caste system, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n Pakistan has had a long history of the state meddling into political affairs and running the show from the background. But what if instead of pulling the strings from behind, the powerful quarters were front and centre, not even feeling the need of a political guise? That happened in 2002 when Pervez Musharraf, both the army chief and the president at the same time, decided to hold elections.<\/p>\n PML-Q, the party that won the elections that year, was created, or rather engineered, less than three months before the polling day. While the party itself was nascent, the politicians it comprised of were seasoned and poached from the two established parties.<\/p>\n The 2002 elections saw the end of a trend that had lasted all through the 1990s when the PPP and PML-N played musical chairs with the prime minister\u2019s office \u2014 also called the two-party system. In the new millennium came a new strategy where both the traditional big guns (PPP, PML-N) were dumped, their top leadership exiled, and the leftovers used to draft the King\u2019s party (PML-Q).<\/p>\n Not one to take chances, Musharraf, as the president, promulgated<\/a> the Political Parties Order, 2002, with bespoke restrictions introduced to specifically knock out the PPP and PML-N. The executive order declared that the head of a contesting party must be present in Pakistan and they must not be convicted.<\/p>\n The pre-poll manoeuvring was so sophisticated that there was no real need of anything extravagant on the actual day of voting.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are general elections, and then there are the General\u2019s elections, and this was the latter,\u201d Dawn News<\/em> journalist Zarrar Khuhro said<\/a>. \u201cThe 2002 elections were unbelievably rigged. Every single administrative department from the police to the returning officers to the people who counted the votes \u2014 they were all on that side (the state).\u201d<\/p>\n Khuhro explained that in Pakistan\u2019s electoral history, disenfranchisement is often dressed up as reform, and the 2002 version of that tried-and-failed trick came in the form of election hopefuls being required to have graduate degrees. \u201cOn the face of it, it seemed fine but then what\u2019s the state of education in Pakistan? So are you not disenfranchising millions of people?\u201d<\/p>\n However, the Muttahida Majlis\u2013i\u2013Amal, a pro-Musharraf alliance of religio-political parties, was allowed a way in via an exception. \u201cA madressah certificate was considered equal to a degree,\u201d Khuhro said. \u201cSo you disenfranchised a vast majority of politicians but you allowed them (the clerics).\u201d<\/p>\n The manipulation of the 1990 elections actually had its foundations laid prior to the elections of 1988 when the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), an alliance of nine parties, was created<\/a> out of thin air by the then chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) retired General Hamid Gul, just to counter Benazir.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1988, IJI was created overnight to block the clean victory of Benazir Bhutto,\u201d Nusrat Javeed told Dawn.com<\/em>. \u201cAll of a sudden, Muhammad Khan Junejo, Nawaz Sharif, Jamaat-i-Islami, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi \u2014 all teamed up. These nine parties joined forces in the blink of an eye.\u201d<\/p>\n The newly formed IJI could not win the 1988 elections despite being the spy chief\u2019s brainchild but come 1990, it was ready. To make sure they got the desired results this time, IJI own chairman (Jatoi) was installed as the caretaker minister.<\/p>\n In 2012, more than two decades later, the Supreme Court would rule<\/a> that there was enough evidence proving that the 1990 elections were indeed rigged. It further noted that the then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, COAS General (R) Aslam Baig and DG ISI Asad Durrani conspired against the PPP government.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Rs140 million from the public exchequer was distributed among opposition politicians through the then chief executive of a major bank, Younas Habib, to keep the PPP from winning.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened in 1990 elections was the mother of all rigging,\u201d said Mazhar Abbas. \u201cThe Asghar Khan case is the only instance when the Supreme Court, after years of hearings, declared that the 1990 elections were indeed rigged. This is perhaps the only election that has ultimately proven to be rigged.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to bankrolling the anti-PPP parties, work was done to also hurt Benazir\u2019s repute. \u201cThere was a lot of character assassination of and negative propaganda against Benazir,\u201d recalls Zohra Yousuf. \u201cThere was no social media then but they were using other tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n For almost all the analysts Dawn.com<\/em> spoke to, 2018 elections were the most common pick for the most unfair of them all, but with the caveat that it could be taken over by the upcoming polls when it\u2019s all said and done.<\/p>\n The groundwork for the alleged manipulation of the 2018 elections was laid exactly a year ago with the ouster<\/a> of the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was disqualified from holding a public office by the Supreme Court on corruption charges.<\/p>\n The months leading up to the elections saw a massive bout<\/a> of censorship of the media, while many \u2018electables\u2019 either quit<\/a> the PML-N or joined the PTI, allegedly at the behest of the establishment. In fact, on the final day of scrutiny of nomination papers, seven of the PML-N\u2019s ticket-holders from south Punjab returned<\/a> party tickets and decided to contest as independents.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, after the elections, regional parties such as MQM-P and PML-Q, the latter being the perennial king\u2019s party, lent<\/a> their support to the PTI. Towards the end of the PTI government, MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi would openly say<\/a> that the party was coerced to join the PTI government. Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, then of the PML-Q but now of the PTI, would also accuse the Imran\u2019s party of using<\/a> the establishment\u2019s crutches and never having learned politics for themselves.<\/p>\n5 \u2014 The controlled elections of 1997<\/h2>\n
4 \u2014 The \u2018partyless\u2019 polls of 1985<\/h2>\n
3 \u2014 The General\u2019s election of 2002<\/h2>\n
2 \u2014 the mother of all rigging in 1990<\/h2>\n
1 \u2014 2018 – The most unfair elections but only till date<\/h2>\n