The polls must go on

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has made it clear that any attempt to ‘derail’ the electoral exercise will be denied. In an order on Friday night, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa suspended the Lahore High Court’s order that had halted the training of DROs and ROs by the ECP. With this order, there is hope that the general election will – finally – go ahead on February 8. 

To be fair, none of the mainstream parties, including the PTI, has indicated it wants the elections to be delayed. On Friday, the ECP had filed an appeal regarding the LHC’s order. The Supreme Court has said that the LHC will not be holding any further hearings on the petitions related to the appointment of polling officers, and has also said a show-cause notice should be issued to Barrister Umair Khan Niazi – the original petitioner – on why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.

The LHC had a day earlier given its decision on the plea filed by the PTI’s Umair Niazi and suspended the ECP’s decision to appoint ROs and DROs from the civil bureaucracy. In turn, the ECP suspended its notification of appointment of executive officers as ROs. During Friday’s hearing, the SC judges did take exception to this step by the ECP, asking what made the electoral body suspend the notifications and training. It may be noted that the LHC’s order by Justice Ali Baqir Najafi had said that: “With top political leadership locked inside the jail or gone underground, the electioneering by his political party would be a big question mark. The apprehension of the petitioner of avoiding fair and free elections by the Election Commission of Pakistan appears to be well founded....”

Meanwhile, there seems to be some confusion with the PTI’s ranks regarding this whole case of petitions and stay orders. On Thursday, post the LHC order, one of the party's senior leaders and part of the legal team had also conceded that the PTI was likely to withdraw its petition from the LHC to the extent of stay order and that perhaps part of the criticism of the PTI was justified since it could have caused a delay in the general election. The PTI has, however, said on Friday night as well that it does not wish for any delay in the elections at all. But it does still have reservations over what it says are compromised executive officers appointed by the caretaker government. The PML-N and the PPP have both said they will not agree to any delay in the elections as has the PTI. In this rare agreement by all three parties lies a glaring truth: nothing in our political or economic future will improve without free and fair elections – free and fair being the operative terms here. The burden for ensuring that now falls on to the ECP, which has the unenviable task of ensuring a credible election exercise at a time when the leader of arguably the country’s most popular party is behind bars, his party’s politicians either facing cases or in hiding or having defected. Any hint of partisanship in these elections will only be a recipe for a further spiral downward for the country. Pakistan cannot afford more political acrimony, unnecessary interventions, and polarization. The ECP announcing the election schedule will hopefully be the first step towards the elections. Now all that’s needed is to make sure these elections are not headed the way of the 2018 election.