AS interesting developments continue to unfold on the political front in the aftermath of February 08 general election, caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar has ruled out any probe into allegations of rigging in elections under external pressure. During his news conference on Monday, when his attention was drawn to the demands of the United States and the United Kingdom for investigations into the allegations of rigging and delay in announcement of results, he pointed out that other countries and international forums make their assumptions and opinions based on fractured information on social media. The PM emphatically stated that the interim government ensured level-playing to all and that was why independent candidates emerged as the largest single group on the national and provincial assembly seats.
There is intense propaganda by vested interests both in social media and electronic media about rigging despite the fact that the PTI-backed independents secured absolute majority in KP Assembly and emerged as the largest group in the National Assembly. In fact, venomous propaganda against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Establishment began much before elections and post-polls allegations of rigging are mostly politically motivated to pressurize and malign national institutions. This has also been borne out by the decision of the Lahore High Court on Monday, which dismissed 18 writ petitions as non-maintainable, filed by runner-up PTI-backed independent candidates challenging the victory of PML-N’s contestants, including notable figures like Maryam Nawaz and members of Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) such as Aleem Khan and Aun Chaudhry. The court rightly directed the petitioners to pursue remedies available under the Elections Act, 2017, and encouraged them to file representations before the Election Commission of Pakistan for redressal. This is what the saner minded people have been emphasizing – instead of agitating the issue on roads and streets as well as premature knocking on doors of the judiciary, those hurling allegations of rigging and manipulation should first exhaust all available forums. The ECP has also maintained and rightly so that saving human lives and ensuring accuracy was more important than the swift announcement of election results. In a statement, it noted that the suspension of mobile networks, lack of communication access, polling stations in far-flung areas, travel at night, harsh weather and snow, and sit-ins by political parties caused difficulties in the transportation of election results. The challenges faced by the Commission can be judged by the fact that helicopters were used to transport polling staff and material in some areas of Balochistan. In urban areas, many Returning Officers as well as presiding officers complained that they were unable to announce results promptly due to the presence of charged crowds at polling stations and offices of returning officers. There is also logic in claims of the Commission that there was a mixed polling trend in areas where the election results were delayed, and no single party benefited or lost in any way due to the delay. The ECP also pointed out that the EMS mobile app installed in the mobile phones of the presiding officers needed cellular connectivity to send Form-45. Since cellular service was switched off, the presiding officers were unable to send the data to ROs. Similarly, in 2018, the results were completed in about three days, while this time, the election results were completed in one and a half days, except in some constituencies. In this backdrop, it is unfortunate that some parties are trying to raise the level of political tension in the country by levelling unsubstantiated allegations. Apart from social media and electronic media campaigns based on falsehood and misconception, plans are being made to incite people on violence and that is why Chief Minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi issued a strict warning that the government would sternly deal with any attempt to create a May 09-like situation. As against the tendency of levelling baseless allegations, some leaders displayed humane and civilized reaction to their own defeat and that of their parties. The decisions of JI Emir Sirajul Haq and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) Jehangir Tarin to resign from their offices have raised their prestige and respect in the eyes of the people and others should go for internal accountability rather than throwing the burden of their defeat on others or on national institutions.
