WITH the general elections just around the corner all the major political parties in the country are shouting from the roof tops about the necessity of a level playing field for all participants in the next elections. There are no two opinions about the importance and need of a fair and free elections without any interference or political engineering of any form, but has this country ever had any elections without the howls of rigging, cheating and foul play? Today the PTI appears to be the most aggrieved party and is in the forefront of asking for a level playing field and the PPP is not far behind but there appears to be a difference of opinion between the Senior Zardari and his younger protégé. The PMLN appears to be the most hopeful about an electoral victory amidst rumors of being favorite of powerful establishment. The very first direct elections to the national assembly on the basis of adult franchise and one man one vote took place in December 1970 under the military regime of General Yahiya Khan. This election was perhaps the only election in the electoral history of Pakistan that was accepted as fair and free without any interference by participants of that election, otherwise our electoral history has been a sordid tale of rigging and cheating. According to air marshal Asghar Khan “according to third world standards, the elections were fair and free” but there were certain complaints that the govt. of the day was supporting the rightist parties and the information minister Sher Ali Khan Pataudi was openly in favor of the rightists. So even in these elections there was a fly in the ointment. The next general elections to the National assembly were held in 1977 under the Bhutto regime and this election was a case of blatant rigging cheating and fraud resulting in public retaliation in the form of a protest movement leading to the collapse f the Bhutto Govt. and the imposition of the second military regime led by General Zia Ul Haque. The Zia rule started in mid-1977 with the promise of elections within 90 days but that did not happen and he managed to change all the political rules and held nonparty general elections in 1985 the idea was to keep the People’s party out of the game. Again there was no question of a level playing field. Pakistan witnessed the next general elections in 1988 after the death of General Zia and the presidency of Ghulam Ishaq Khan. This election again was heavily rigged and made impossible to win by the PPP.
General Hamid Gul DG ISI managed to put together an alliance of anti PPP right wing political parties and the political group called the Islami Jamhoori Itehad or the IJI was created to defeat the PPP. Again in 1990 general elections the same scheme was used and the IJI was even given monetary help and this was revealed by DG ISI Lt. General Asad Durrani in an affidavit submitted in the Supreme Court.The PMLN govt. was ousted by the president using his powers of clause 58 (2) B on charges of corruption and poor governance and numerous legal cases were registered against the PMLN leadership and by the 1993 general elections it was made clear that the PMLN will not be allowed to enter the corridors of power once again. In 1996-97 the PPP govt. was dismissed on the charges of corruption again and Benazir and Asif Zardari faced a deluge of criminal cases and a huge smear campaign was launched against Benazir to keep her out of power.
The 1997 elections brought Nawaz Sharif in to power once again and this time with a heavy mandate of a two thirds majority but his govt. was toppled by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999 and Nawaz Sharif and family were packed off into exile in Saudi Arabia. The next general election in 2002 under Musharraf was another sorry spectacle when the PML Q or the king’s party was created to assist general Musharraf in his political ambitions. In the 2008 elections according to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein in his book “Sach Tau Ye Hai” Musharraf had arranged for the PPP to win so this election was again rigged to obtain certain results. Elections in 2013 were severely criticized by the PTI as being unfair and rigged and the PTI chairman launched an agitation campaign against the results of this election. According to the commission of enquiry headed by the Chief Justice “it cannot be said that on an overall basis, the elections were not true and fair reflection of the mandate given by the electorate” The 2018 general election was another shameful story of an unlevelled playing field tilted very heavily in favor of the PTI. This time the PTI was the favorite right from the election campaign and during the PTI rule. One can only hope and pray that the ugly story of cheating and rigging will not be repeated in coming elections and for once the country will have a truly fair free election the results of which will be accepted by all participants.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.
views expressed are writer’s own.
