Daily Times

Although this was not the first time that Pakistanis saw sham elections where one party was favoured by the deep state, thanks to social media and coverage by international journalistic media, the people know quite well how the recent elections were rigged. It started with a pre-poll media blackout of PML-N leaders’ speeches and the forced defection of PML-N electables. On polling day, local TV channels pedaled an impression of PTI winning although counting had hardly reached one percent of the polling stations. The worst part was exclusion of polling agents from vote counting process.

Because the whole counting process was doctored to favour the PTI candidates, the margin of victory was often in the few thousands and even few hundreds or less. Interestingly when recounting was done for numerous initially counted and announced results, the runner up candidates turned out to be winners. In many results the margin of rejected votes was more often far greater than the margin of victory, which explains the retrofitting of outcomes and the unusual delay in announcement of results even from places as central as Lahore and Karachi. Scared of getting exposed, the ‘engineers’ pressured the Returning Officers not to entertain the recounting requests in remaining constituencies such as in NA 249 and NA57 where Shahbaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi were runner ups.

As it was done during the referendum of Musharraf in 2002, that incidentally Imran Khan had supported, the vote counting trick went in overdrive mode, or else what might explain PTI winning from Azizabad and Lyari instead of MQM and PPP respectively, where PTI’s local bodies candidates had lost miserably. What sounds even more too good to be true is the reaction of the two mainstream parties, PPP and PMLN, to these contentious results. While PPP didn’t even bother to attend an APC jointly called in by JUI and PMLN. Although PPP rejected the results yet it clarified that it would not boycott the new parliament. Despite co-chaining the APC, PMLN under Shahbaz Sharif didn’t commit to any boycott for the sake of democracy.

Also read: After the elections: the good and the bad

Media analyst too said that for the sake of continuation of democracy the runner up parties must accept the results and sit in the assemblies instead of protesting and agitating on it. One might wonder if the current quasi military dispensation is worth caring about; as if Pakistan really has an independent media and civilian supremacy in this country. For over a year all of our news TV channels have been forced to become what until2002 used to be PTV, which narrated only those news that helped government or military establishment. Else these channels must have given due coverage to parties other than PTI or the PTM rallies which were completely blacked out. Even now, following the election’s bungled results, protests in Murree, Mansehra, Batagram, Shangla, Sargodha, and Karachi were not covered by electronic media. The scant coverage these protests did receive was on Facebook and Twitter.

Following the election’s bungled results, protests in Murree, Mansehra, Batagram, Shangla, Sargodha, and Karachi were not covered by electronic media. The scant coverage these protests did receive was on Facebook and Twitter

The only thing that might explain why the two mainstream parties didn’t opt for agitation is their personal expediency and not democracy. PPP is happy they still have Sindh to rule while Shahbaz Sharif thought he could still keep Punjab in a coalition set-up. Besides, they might be expecting to get some relief and concessions on their corruption cases, which NAB is hounding them over. Sadly, over the last four decades the political leadership in Pakistan has failed to come clean about their personal business affairs and assets. Consequently, they never had the confidence to confront and counter the machinations of the Pakistani deep state. Most agitations that Pakistan has witnessed over the last three decades were against the incumbent government, with covert and overt support from the military establishment as PNA did in 1977 and Imran Khan did following the 2013 elections.

The two mainstream parties must not downplay that organisations such as the HRCP, along with the EU Observers Delegation and the international media have refused to give these elections a clean chit. There have been protests and sit-in rallies in different cities by ANP, PKMAP, and JUI against poll rigging. The people’s right to elect their representatives and government lies at the core of democracy and the doctored results from the July 25 election was anything but the people’s will. In this backdrop, just because PPP and PML-N prefer not to mobilize and protest, one would be naïve to believe that these parties have accepted these rigged elections for the sake of democracy and not for personal stakes. With such a lack of leadership and courage, Pakistani democracy will continue to suffer setbacks in the future.

The writer is a sociologist with an interest in history and politics. He tweets @ZulfiRao

Published in Daily Times, August 2^nd 2018.