Daily Times

The job of provincial interim set-ups is to ensure a level playing field for all political parties and their candidates. That, sadly, has not been the case. At least in the Punjab.

The PPP is confronting repeated impediments to its constitutional right to freedom of movement as it hits the campaign trail. Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has, over the last few days been stopped both in Multan as well as the southern Punjabi city of Uch Sharif. On both occasions, local authorities saw fit to hinder the safe passage of the PPP caravan. In Multan, the district management was responsible while in Uch Sharif it was the police.

Bluntly put, this is unacceptable. The right to electioneering throughout the country is crucial to the tenets of a free and fair election. Thus the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has done the needful and directed the caretaker Punjab government to probe the matter. And it is important that the Chief Minister, Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, takes this up in name of neutrality. After all, it is happening on his watch.

Already news channels appear to be affording different parties disproportionate air-time. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that the two parties battling it out in the Punjab are each running media campaigns running into tens of millions of rupees. Thus the fourth estate needs to be especially firm when delivering the message that it is not for sale. Even as the posters of one party dominate the provincial capital of Lahore.

The PPP’s traditional stronghold is in Sindh. But that does not mean this is where it must limit its hopes and outreach. After all, it is in essence a national party that may not be down on its luck at this time. Much in the same way that the PMLN was back in 2008. Only the PTI has yet to prove itself at the Centre.

Be that as it may, the obstruction of the PPP in the Punjab is a worrying development. Not least because journalists are presently facing a perilous environment in terms of election coverage. And if the political parties are also being thwarted at every turn — where does that leave the state and citizenry?

A level playing field must mean just that. Anything less than is akin to poll rigging by another name. After all, ‘engineering’, to use popular parlance, is not exclusively reserved for the ballot box. If one part of the process is flawed then the entire system risks coming down. And if it does, there will be untold collateral damage. Namely, Pakistan’s long-term democratic health will be back on life support. And none of us wants that. Do we?  *

Published in Daily Times, July 10^th 2018.