THE Election Commission of Pakistan on Tuesday informed the Peshawar High Court that under the law, the schedule of general election was to be declared at least 54 days ahead of the Feb 08 polling day, so it still had many days to do so. The court directed it to produce the election schedule after its formal announcement. However, JUI(F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is once again spearheading a campaign for delaying the general election citing lawlessness in the two provinces of KP and Balochistan.
There is absolutely no justification to seek a delay in polls as the ECP is engaged in necessary preparations and the government has released a handsome amount for the purpose as demanded by the Commission. The statement given before the Peshawar High Court also leaves no doubt that the Commission intends to announce the schedule within the stipulated period, which will force the political parties to focus on the electoral exercise. In fact, the Commission was so determined to hold the elections on time that it wanted the media watchdog – PEMRA – to move against all those creating doubts about the conduct of elections on February 08. There is no doubt that the law and order situation in the two provinces is not ideal because of a resurge in terrorist incidents. Political parties and candidates might not be in a position to carry out electioneering as per their original plans and traditional practices due to security concerns. However, they have fuller access to social and formal media and, therefore, can put across their point of view and establish linkages with their electorates through these forums. As for the polling day, the ECP has already made its plan known to deploy troops and personnel of law enforcing agencies for security duties at polling station level and hopefully this would encourage people to come to the polling stations to cast their votes. Otherwise too, local and national elections were held in the country in the past too in challenging situations and there is no reason February 08 elections cannot be held. Therefore, instead of creating confusion and doubts, it is the responsibility of all political parties to throw their weight behind the Commission enabling it to perform its duty not only in a timely manner but also fairly and transparently.
