Daily Times

Many weeks before the elections were held, the nation had been prepared for an election mode. Political speeches and social media played the main role. But speculations were rife whether the elections would be held in time or postponed. The caretaker government deserves credit for holding the elections on time. The credit ended here and a chaotic situation developed after the elections in the form of a blame game. Allegations of widespread rigging were levelled by politicians belonging to opposing parties.

Those who claim that never in the country’s history such controversial elections have been held are spot on. Unexpected election results always cause doubts about the electioneering process and the election commission itself. Instead of solving the problems at the national level as the people expected, elections have caused further confusion and loss of public faith in the democratic system. The political confusion after the elections did not produce any clear winner, therefore, Nawaz Sharif withdrew from the seat of the prime minister since he didn’t want to be the PM of a coalition government.

The elections threw up a large independent group. Many among them will opt to join the winning parties to be in the government. Some of them have already announced plans to join the PML(N), which is likely to form the government at the centre. On the other hand, the religious parties are unhappy with the election results. They consider the results manipulated and rigged. It’s the opinion held by a large number of people.

The caretaker government deserves credit for holding the elections on time. But the credit ended here and a chaotic situation developed after the elections in the form of a blame game.

Even our evergreen religious politician Maulana Fazalur Rahman is disappointed with the election results. He survived some attacks on his life before the elections. But he must have felt much insulted by his defeat in his home constituency by none other than honey-famed Ali Amin Gandapore.

The long-haired Gandapore, who looks more like a showboy than a serious politician, has also been nominated as chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. While he was very excited about his nomination, the Azad Jammu & Kashmir Election Commission issued his arrest warrants regarding his misconduct during the 2021 elections. The suspense continues.

Maulana Fazalur Rahman is more famous for heading the Kashmir Committee for as long as one can remember. As head of the committee, he visited many countries, including France. Some say he even visited the beaches there only to disapprove of the environment he observed there. Now the Maulana has taken a U-turn to negotiate with PTI to create space for himself.

It’s fresh in public minds when Imran Niazi publically called him by un-parliamentary names and the Maulana, in return, castigated him for representing the Jewish lobby. Imran and Maulana’s mutual dislike for each other was well known. Truly, politics has no permanent friends or foes, only permanent interests.

Unfortunately, when the wheeling and dealing between various political parties goes on to secure their future, what seems ignored is the welfare of the common man. The lower segment of society is facing a hard time with prices of various utilities shooting up from time to time. A favour the new government could do is to have a small number of ministers and advisers and reduce the public money spent on the huge bureaucracy. Many departments are simply unneeded and deserve to be slashed.

I strongly feel the arrangement to cast votes by itself was extremely cumbersome in many cases. Instead of making polling stations according to the postal code as usual, these were spread haphazardly without considering the distance the voters had to travel to vote. For instance, my brother, a senior doctor, and I live in Lalazar colony near Thokar Niazbeg.

Previously the polling station in this area used to be the lawn of a government building. This time we had to travel to the middle of a congested residential area located on Walton Road.

The Walton Road is all dug up to lay a sewage line and to widen it. Starting from home at 8.30 am and reaching the polling station in a dilapidated school building after two hours by walking through crowded streets was an experience in itself. We had asked the driver to park the car on one of the streets. After casting votes, we couldn’t contact the driver since the mobile didn’t work. Finally, we walked back to Walton Road and took a rickshaw to return home.

Many voters in Lahore had to go through similar hardships. The ECP is to blame for the troublesome arrangements. What did such a hassle to cast votes by travelling long distances to arduous places give us in the end? Nothing but confusion so far!

The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and can be reached at pinecity@gmail.com