IT augurs well for the overall political atmosphere that the country’s major political parties Wednesday reached a consensus on organizing an All Parties Conference (APC) to ensure peaceful and violence-free electoral process. Participating in a dialogue titled ‘Common Resolve for Political Harmony,’ organized by Communications Research Strategies (CRS), senior parliamentarians and politicians representing seven prominent political parties, including PML(N), PPP, PTI, ANP, NDM and MQM, emphasized the need for an APC or any other mechanism that would enable a constructive dialogue among the political forces.
The CRS deserves appreciation for hosting such an important event that crystallized thinking on the vital issue of organizing the forthcoming elections in an orderly and peaceful manner. This is crucial in view of the highly polarized society on different lines, growing intolerance, lack of respect for dissent, misuse of social media, tendency of spreading fake news and near absence of rule of law. In an ideal situation, elections should be contested on the basis of performance and delivery as well as competitive manifestoes but in our country all energies are focused on levelling allegations against the political opponents. This free for all character assassination and the use of abusive language raises political temperature leading to violence during different stages of the electoral process, especially during electioneering and the polling day. No doubt, there are still no clear words as to when exactly the general election would be held but statements of relevant authorities lead one to believe that these might be held in October or latest by November this year. This being so there is limited time at the disposal of all stakeholders to sit together to not just agree upon a comprehensive code of conduct but also the electoral reforms to restore credibility of the entire exercise.
