Daily Times

We are only three weeks away from the general elections to be held on February 8. The elections were due to be held within the constitutionally mandated 90 days after the end of the tenure of the previous parliament. However, the PDM regime managed to have the approval of the Council of Common Interests for the outcome of the digital census, necessitating the delimitation of the national and provincial constituency providing justification for the deviation from the constitutional mandate of 90 days. The February 8 was fixed by the ECP in consultation with the President under pressure from the Apex Court of the country. Earlier, the ECP defied the orders of the Supreme Court to hold the provincial elections in Punjab and KPK on lame excuses.

While mouths to feed keep growing, the productive capacity and resources of the country have been showing an alarming downward trend.z

Keeping in view the political turmoil the country has been confronted with for the past two years, the purpose of the general elections, by all means, should have been to allow the people of Pakistan in a fair and transparent manner to vote a party of their choice into power to end the political polarisation and rehabilitate the ailing economy of the country. But the way this exercise is being conducted by the concerned institutions runs counter to the above purpose. The entire tactics of the state institutions seem to be geared to give an easy walkover to certain political parties of their own choice instead of recognizing and respecting the fundamental right of the people to choose their rulers. These tactics, prima facie, are unconstitutional and illegal.

Since past two years, one political party has been subjected to the worst state coercion. The party leader has been facing hundreds of criminal and terrorist cases running from court to court to face the prosecution and persecution. The older generation has been familiar with such political and electoral gimmicks being the marked feature of elections since the birth of this country. However, these are highly bewildering for the young voters falling within the age bracket of 18-25 years the number of whom has surged to over 56%. They are more educated and social media savvy. Their impressionable minds have been adversely impacted by these unconstitutional and illegal political tactics weakening their faith in the future of democracy, parliamentary representation and constitutional governance.

The brazen political engineering in the small provinces has seriously irked the genuine leaders of the people. It has almost become clear before the polls which political party will form the federal government and which party will get which province. This, being so obvious would certainly affect the voting trend in the country unless a certain political party springs a big surprise like the Awami League of Shaikh Mujeeb in the fateful elections of 1970. However, every chance for such a political surprise is being blocked by the political engineers of today who know no limit of shame and effrontery. We are wasting our energy and resources in an exercise in futility which will bring about no political stability in the country or help us put the economy on the right track.

Overall, we have bleak conditions in the country. The governmental allocations to social sector particularly education, healthcare, housing, public welfare developmental projects have not registered any perceptible increase. The bigger chunk- about 56% – of the PSDP is being expended on the constituency-based schemes of MNAs and MPAs. The poverty has been on the increase; the serfdom in the agriculture sector is very much intact; the mortality rate in children, to our utmost shame, remains high as compared to the other countries in the region; the education and human development remain the lowest priority of the ruling elite; even today, over 22 million children within the age bracket of 5-15 years are out of school; over 20,000 primary and secondary schools in Sindh that were completely or partially destroyed by the last floods, have not been repaired and made functional; the tyranny of police with increasing number of fake police encounters killing or maiming persons in the custody and hideously oppressive thana culture continues to stare us in the face; the justice has become too expensive to be afforded by common citizenry; the democracy has turned into a farce or at best autocracy with the most powerful institution of the country pulling the strings from behind in matters of governance; the so called mainstream political parties, conceding decision making space, have accepted playing the second fiddle. This is a shameful phenomenon.

The former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbassi, who took over in the wake of the disqualification of Mian Nawaz Sharif, says he was allowed to act as an employee only and not the chief executive of the country. This is what happened to PTI chief in his three-year rule. For a crumb of political power, the civilian leaders have given up all the pretentions. The country has encountered one crisis after the other in its short chequered history but our shameless elite has learnt no lesson. There has been no letup in their futile and absurd political experiments. The 75 years of independence were laid waste in these futile political exercises.

The country keeps accumulating foreign debt without any drastic cut on the overhead governmental expenditures. There has always been an army of Ministers, advisors and Special Assistants with protocols of a medieval king. There has been no bar on the growth of bureaucracy. No regime has ever taken the unbridled growth of population seriously. While mouths to feed keep growing, the productive capacity and resources of the country have been showing an alarming downward trend. The data collection for planning and economic and social development has received scant attention from all the regimes irrespective of their complexion. The patchwork has been order of the day.

The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books.