Daily Times

The 2013 elections were part of the plan, which was facilitated by the decision-makers, to bring Mr Nawaz Sharif back in the government supported by Saudi Arabia and other foreign forces. This was a part of the plan that no political movement will destabilise Mr Sharif’s government. But the internal national forces had to intervene through the court to send back Mr Sharif home and stop the influence of the anti-Pakistan forces. Mr Imran Khan emerged as a third force in these elections and gave a tough time to the ruling party PMLN.

They organised the biggest sit-down, in the history of Pakistan, in front of Parliament House, Islamabad, supported by some anti-government forces. However, due to the unfortunate incident in Army Public School, KPK had to make him close his plan for agitating against the government for hijacking or stealing the elections from 35 constituencies. Mr Imran Khan wanted an investigation or a recount in all those constituencies, but all went in vain. In 2013, once again the two-third majority was given to Mr Sharif to run the affairs of the state smoothly. He had the experience of the last two terms, but his rigidity for being influenced by the decision-makers was very strong. In fact, he declined the suggestion and took a bold decision. His daughter Mariam played a major role in advising him during his tenure. In 2017, Mr Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and now residing out of the country with the permission of the Court due to his medical treatment.

The 2018 elections gave a surprise to many by giving a simple majority to Mr Imran Khan as a blue-eyed and bringing him to power replacing Mr Sharif. These elections were again managed and manoeuvred using the same strategies as applied in the earlier elections to bring Mr Sharif into the government. This time, internal forces/powers were keener to bring a clean man in the government to replace the old corrupt transactional-style leaders. The plan was to, like Altaf, eliminate Mr Sharif, his family and Mr Zardari from the political arena. Yet, it is not an easy task to simply eliminate any person from politics. People have given their life to politics and have strong roots and relations with political, judicial, bureaucratic and armed forces families. This has to be done by making changes in the system by implementing the law of equity, not by force. The level playing field may be given to newcomers to outperform the old players. Mr Khan’s slogan of accountability is still under question and the nation is waiting for a truly honest and competent person to deliver and perform to bring about the change in Pakistan where justice will be for all. The court of law will be known as the court of justice.

The nation is waiting for a truly honest and competent person to deliver to bring about change in Pakistan.

The election has resulted in many unfortunate things in all the government. Even in the current government, the practice of white-collar crimes is still on. There were few tactics of white-collar crimes, which most people used for becoming rich. First was the illegal use of SROs, which were issued for specific persons for a higher gain of a white-collar crime. Second, people became rich by stealing electricity, natural gas and different kind of taxes including custom duties for their businesses with the help of high officials in those particular departments. Third, people were pardoned by the government high ups for not paying loans back to the government-owned banks and private banks as well, which resulted in huge losses in their balance sheets. Later, those banks were privatized and bought by the mafias with malafide intention by not completing the due process. People may have the right to disagree with me but this is the truth and reality of Pakistan. These tactics of white-collar crimes were not limited to one party or one government only. In fact, many hijackers and short-gain seekers have benefited from all governments by one way or the other and no one knows who those beneficiaries are and where they came from by they gave every time a huge loss and damage to the political leader at the grass-root level and the political workers. The cartels of different industries and sectors are all those beneficiaries who have gained in their wealth and earned through the use of government resources or by the political leadership in government or high government officials.

I want to draw the attention of all think tanks and nationalists to the fact that elections are not about bringing political parties into the government but strengthening Pakistan and its system. The process of conducting the elections should be transparent so all stakeholders should trust the process. This can only be achieved by having a tri-member reputable, unbiased, honest and competent election commissioner whose history and work shows that his character and reputation should be acceptable to all the stakeholders. This is a difficult task because in Pakistan there is always a tug-of-war between forces backed by the western powers to have their representatives on these all-important positions, especially when a retired person is rewarded for his/her work and loyalty to the decision-makers. The process and people regulating the process should be so clear that every person should have an opportunity to contest the elections as per their levels and choices. The regulators should have more strict regulations about the reputation and character of the person with his history, work, experience and commitment to the nation, irrespective of the caste and class, who wants to contest any election at any level from any part of the country. It will take some time but in the coming years, the future leaders or emerging leaders in Pakistan will for sure make a difference in the country creating an impact with sustainability. The decision-makers will think about the strategy for implementation of strict regulations for having transparent elections in the country and facilitating the people from all class especially form the grass-root should be trained and developed for serving their communities at the local level, which will be a game-changer and make Pakistan a competitive nation.

The writer is a litigation, corporate and human rights lawyer, a political activist and former Vice-Chairman (SAARC Young Entrepreneur Forum).