Daily Times

Despite their incumbency and having overspent multiple times over for many flagship projects in the city (the Metro bus), the PML-N managed a Houdini act in Lahore’s NA-122 constituency with Ayaz Sadiq prevailing over Aleem Khan by only about 4,000 votes in the over 150,000 cast. The PML-N threw their entire incumbent might behind Ayaz Sadiq to ensure a face-saving result. The PTI clawed back some advantage by taking the PPP-147 seat by about 3,000 seats and Shoaib Siddiqui defeating the PML-N’s Mohsin Latif. More importantly, compare the small margins to the overwhelming PML-N wins in the general elections.

If anything, the margin provides common sense evidence that the 2013 elections were badly flawed. Without the presence of the army to guarantee the freedom of the vote, the presently controversial Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) could not conduct free and fair elections. The code of conduct was violated many times over with the ECP unable to impose their diktat even in a couple or more constituencies in any by-election. What is going to happen in any future general elections?

NA-122 has shown that Mian Nawaz Sharif is still a force to be reckoned with in Punjab, particularly in the city of Lahore. One cannot also deny that Imran Khan has emerged as an almost equal force in Punjab. A low turnout always favours the establishment but a high turnout always favours the opposition; the PTI again failed to get the vote out. A tragedy that the once dominant party in Punjab, the PPP, has become almost irrelevant. The narrowness of the NA win will encourage PPP followers out in the democratic cold to desert en masse, more or less in the ratio they are doing now: four to the PTI, one to the PML-N. While central Punjab may hold for the PML-N, this will be more telling in the PPP stronghold in southern Punjab. Bad news for the PML-N.

The PPP’s famous Bhutto-crafted slogan, roti, kapra aur makan (food, clothing and shelter) stoked the poor man’s dreams, upsetting the applecart of deeply entrenched politicians in 1970 and remaining potent till 2008. My friend, Imran Aslam, has written an excellent play called ‘Roti, Kapra or Ayyan’, which spells out the state of play of a once-upon-a-time premier political party. Ayyan, the fashion model, is not the punch line. By substituting ‘or’ for aur (which means and) Imran Aslam said it all: the leaders of today’s PPP have no resemblance conceivable with those who made the party in the 1960s and then took it through the turmoil of the 1970s, surviving the Zia onslaught in the 1980s and Musharraf’s in the first few years of the 21st century, i.e. till he came up with the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). Musharraf’s NRO destroyed the country by putting Zardari in power. Asif Zardari in turn has successfully destroyed the PPP. It is now an endangered species in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Whether it can survive a free and fair election in Sindh is a moot point. Individual PPP leaders will win elections in their home constituencies but they will be few and far between. Getting the MQM back in from the cold is good politics on the PML-N’s part. Any by-elections during this period in Sindh’s urban areas would have strengthened the PTI and other parties in the NA and Sindh Provincial Assembly (PA). Such gambits are necessary to remain in power. With their power in the streets diminished to a great extent (if not altogether eliminated), and their bluff called, the MQM was certainly desperate not to become politically irrelevant. What pound of flesh did the PML-N agree to mollify the MQM to come back to parliament? And what will it cost the peace in Karachi?

The army is going to be subjected to any number of ‘dirty tricks’ to somehow stop the accountability process. The superior courts are busy giving criminals either bail or medical dispensation. The military courts were established because of the failure of the judicial system to act under the presently flawed Evidence Act in the face of ‘clear and present danger’. The “unknown Rangers” advertisement came out of the blue but also out of thin air. It certainly emanated from far above the secretary information or the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) level. Some hand desperate to escape accountability was fine-tuning it by remote control from a safe distance. We fail to act because we do not want to upset the political applecart, pervasive corruption notwithstanding. This hypocrisy creates obstacles for any accountability process; this person has the money to fund any amount of dirty tricks. And this is not in Sindh alone; what is happening in Punjab? It is no use handing over lists of those who are guilty of corruption and misgovernance to the Prime Minister (PM); if such a list exists those in it must be apprehended and subjected to sustained enquiry. That is the crux of our problems, the undercutting of the credibility of the accountability process by selective targeting of criminals mostly down the chain of culpability. The public availing perception is not wrong that there is a different set of laws for those with money and influence, and a different set of laws for others. This selective justice we practice is an inherent part of the feudal system. The feudal barons now ruling the country belong both to the rural and urban areas.

A full accountability and the much-delayed national census must precede general elections. Those acquiring wealth by illegal means found living far beyond their known means of income and paying taxes far less than what is their annual calculated earnings must be taken out of the governance process. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the various intelligence agencies have quite some proof about the misdoings of the elite and influential presently in the corridors of power. Any failure to address this blatant corruption, which in any case has a nexus with organised crime and terrorism, will have an adverse effect across the broad spectrum of our war against terrorism within the country.

The army has gone past a fail-safe line in attacking this evil nexus; it cannot afford to slow down or stop the ongoing remedial action. The backlash if the army fails to sustain this accountability process would be fatal for the country.

The writer is a defence analyst and security expert