Daily Times

The country today is witnessing its 13th General Elections and more than 100 million Pakistanis will have the chance to cast their vote for candidates to Provincial and National Assemblies. There are a total of 342 seats up in the National Assembly, out of which 272 are general seats while the remaining 70 are special seats reserved for women and ethnic minority candidates.

Provincial Assemblies including Punjab (371), Sindh (168), Balochistan (65), and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (124) have a total number of 728 seats, out of which 557 are general seats and 151 are reserved for minorities and women. According to statistics available with Election Commission of Pakistan, 12570 candidates belonging to more than 97 political parties or no political party are contesting these elections on general seats.

These general elections could lead in a new government that will continue to face economic, political and strategic challenges. There is no chance of improvement in civil-military relations and the strategic scenario will remain in a flux not only in the context of Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India and other Middle Eastern countries, but also in terms of relations with the US and other global powers.

Will there be a genuine change of heart and direction? A fundamental point as to who decides what is best for Pakistan? The establishment has for too long arrogated to itself this right, which belongs to the people and the electorate. If there had been no military interventions, from 1958 onwards, we too might have had the kind of democracy that falters in many key areas across the border but also delivers in many others.

International media, political analysts, election observers, and major political parties less Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have already raised allegations like ‘pre-poll rigging’ and ‘absence of a level playing field’ for today’s election. Husain Haqqani, former ambassador of Pakistan to the US, in his recent article writes that “the blatant meddling of the country’s all-powerful military, with a series of assists by a partisan judiciary, has tainted the election results, and it is now clear that the outcome will not rid Pakistan of its chronic instability and poor civil-military relations”.

Today’s election, in many ways, will set the future course of politics in Pakistan. While the deck seems loaded to put PTI in the driving seat, electoral politics is a little more complex than organising a marching drill, and the best of calculations can still be proved wrong

Most people are certain that the army has changed its direct intervention and is now playing a political role indirectly so as to enjoy power but no responsibility. It is believed by many national and international observers that PTI, the newly established Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), and extremist parties like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), Jammat-u-Dawwah (JuD), Milli Muslim League (MML), Tehreek-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) are proxies.They are meant to divide and minimise the votes of parties like Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)so as to get a hung parliament.

For nearly 70 years, the establishment has defined Pakistan’s national security priorities. In May 2013 after his electoral victory, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, during an interview to renowned Indian journalist and anchor Burkha Dutt for NDTV, said that “civilian supremacy over the military is a must”. He went a step further and said, “The prime minister is the boss, not the army chief. This is what the constitution says. We all have to live within the four walls of the constitution”.

And then the nation saw his ouster and imprisonment on a technicality unrelated to the Panama Papers.

On the other hand, former dictator Pervez Musharraf, who stands accused of high treason as well as having a role in the murder of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was allowed to leave the country with permission of the courts. This glaring double standard is what undermines our democracy. In the nation’s 70-year history, not one prime minister has served out a full five-year term.

The first Constituent Assembly of the country passed Objective Resolution which still is a preamble of the 1973 constitution. It says that “the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed. The State shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives of the people”.

Upholding democracy and democratic norms, Quaid-i-Azam on many occasions supported active participation of the people in electing their representatives. According to Quaid-i-Azam “Democracy is in the blood of the Muslims, who look upon complete equality of mankind, and believe in fraternity, equality, and liberty”.Throughout his career as a politician and as a legislator, Quaid’s dedication to the rule of law and constitutionalism was unswerving. In the short span of seven decades, we have made a mockery of these values by continuously interventions. Democracy is often confusing business, but it appears even more so in our circumstances because the structures that support it, the constitution, parliament, and the judiciary, have systematically been weakened.

It is no pleasure, year after year, to repeat a litany of failure. We must squarely confront the challenge of discovering our direction and identity if we want the times to come to be more purposeful and productive. Do we want to be a democratic, disciplined, accommodating and legitimate country or do we want to turn ourselves into a society with a garrison mentality, unable to give people the freedom to exercise their choice freely and without restriction?

Pakistan can move towards stability and consolidation if the constituent units are given a strong stake in its strength and vitality. This means not only economic development in backward provinces and regions but also a proper devolution of powers from the centre downwards. For the people at large, democracy essentially means a proper sense of participation at all levels of government, federal, provincial and local.

Today’s election, in many ways, will set the future course of politics in Pakistan. While the deck seems loaded to put PTI in the driving seat, electoral politics is a little more complex than organising a marching drill, and the best of calculations can still be proved wrong.

The writer is PhD Political Science, Civil Servant based in Islamabad. He can be reached at zafarkhansafdar@yahoo.com

Published in Daily Times, July 25^th 2018.