Daily Times

Clash between state institutions and political leadership has remained one of the key bone of contentions for a country like Pakistan which has been plagued by a lack of political cohesiveness as far as the living memory is concerned. This was once again indicated after the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) twitter account shared a controversial vlog recorded by a prominent journalist who claimed that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being introduced by the PTI government are an ‘expensive fraud’. This, of course, caused an uproar with people legitimately questioning the ECP’s impartiality. Eventually, the concerned post was deleted.

Not long ago, an ugly standoff owing to Senate elections resulted in nothing but controversies that caused embarrassment for both sides in one way or another.

Factually speaking, the EVMs are yet to be fully tested with the Ministry of Science and Technology already working on them. President Arif Alvi has even clarified recently that the EVMs and paper ballots shall work collectively with no room for any kind of hacking.

It seems as if whoever shared the vlog from ECP’s twitter account was not only trying wedge a drive between the government and state institutions but also spreading panic amongst citizens. While the ECP claimed it was shared ‘in error’ by its IT department, it does not give a license to act irresponsibly.

The constitution doesn’t allow such instances to take place at any cost and a trend is being witnessed where bureaucratic officials try toact ‘rebellious’.

While the government does need to have a firm grip on governance and ensureimplementation of a strict policy for social media posts, the onus also lies on these officialswho need to keep their allegeddisdain for the ruling partyon the side and follow the rules in letter and spirit.

With voting rights finally given to Overseas Pakistanis as they should have been long ago, this is not the time for any further controversies when it comes to electoral matters.The government, ECP and the opposition must jointly work together through legislation and policymakingfor the state’s best interests. This is to ensurethat the next general elections are free and fair since accusations of rigging have been made in almost every single instance apart from the ones in 1970. *