Politicians fear Pak poll panel move to defer vote will hurt country

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Islamabad, Sep 30 (IANS) Pakistan’s caretaker government took office after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the dissolution of Parliament, or National Assembly, on August 9.

While the constitutional mandate of the caretaker setup is to ensure holding of general elections within 90 days from the dissolution of Parliament, the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) announcement conducting the polls in January 2024, has raised serious concerns among all political parties in the country.

The ECP has linked holding of polls in the country with the latest numbers in the digital census and new delimitations of constituencies, stating that completion of the process is pivotal before a vote.

As the ECP has held onto its position on the poll date, the political parties, especially the Pakistan People Party (PPP), have raised serious questions over the delay, terming it as a violation of the Constitution, which clearly states that elections should be held within the mandated 90 days after dissolution of the National Assembly.

Former Foreign Minister and PPP head, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that his demand for timely elections is to ensure political stability in the country.

“PPP still says that elections should be held as soon as possible, according to the Constitution and within 90 days so that we can win the polls and serve the people of the country and take them out of these difficult economic times," he said.

While the coalition parties under the former Pakistan Democratic Movement(PDM)-led government had agreed to for the completion of the digital census and delimitation process before going into polls during a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) on August 5, clearly implied that conclusion of both would take at least four months.

However, the parties have now shifted their consensus in the CCI and created a political narrative, which goes in line with the country’s constitutional requirements.

“The stance of these political parties has taken a shift after the dissolution of their government. This is because all of these parties need to work around a political narrative as part of their respective election campaigning. Be it the PPP or JUI-F (Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl) or any other party, they have to go to their constituencies asking for votes. And defending delays in elections would certainly not be a decision they would be able to sell to public,” said senior political analyst Javed Siddique.

While the demand for elections is being heard from all the political quarters, the caretaker government seems to be functioning under the protection of the military establishment and the ECP, giving itself a legal cover to stay in office way past the 90-day mandated period.

The caretaker government’s performance seems to be based on overlooking the management, decisions and steps taken by the military establishment, which has taken it upon itself to recover the country from economic crisis.

“It is clear that the military establishment is taking major decisions in terms of economic revival through investments, crackdown on illegal hoardings of the US dollar and money laundering, which has had a major impact on the performance of the Pakistani rupee during September 2023. The caretaker Prime Minister and his cabinet is only there to give the decisions of the military establishment, a legal and constitutional legality,” said Siddique.

With the general elections scheduled for January 2024, parties fear that their voters may start drawing a comparison between their time in power and the towering inflation with the performance of the interim government.

This may further weaken their vote bank if the caretaker government uses this time to strengthen the country’s economy and bring some ease into the lives of the locals.

--IANS

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