Sir: The narrative about pre-poll rigging that flooded newspapers and television channels before the 2018 General Elections has caused ripples in the foreign press. There are now articles circulating calling the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) victory a “soft coup” that has been “orchestrated by the GHQ”.
Pakistani democracy is by no means perfect, but it is still unfortunate that the foreign media has such little regard for the mandate of the Pakistani people. The two biggest contenders after the PTI have accepted the election results, but some candidates have demanded a recount in their own constituencies. They have not levelled allegations against any particular party. Obviously this indicates that problems in these elections were caused by the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) mistakes, not any other institution.
Furthermore, there are also parties besides the PTI which were accused of being backed by the ‘establishment’ but completely failed to win any significant number of seats. I hope the foreign press takes a more well-informed approach to Pakistani affairs in the future.
Fatima Ashfaq
Karachi
Published in Daily Times, July 28th 2018.
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