The least that the ECP can do is to get FIRs filed against those who were involved in the lear violation of the law.
RAWALPINDI: What a shame for the authorities in that their orders banning jubilation firing were brazenly and blatantly flouted by those celebrating the success of winners of by-elections in Peshawar and elsewhere. The least that the Election Commission of Pakistan can do is to get FIRs filed against those who were involved in what is a clear violation of the law and then present them in a court for prosecution. The best way to stop this practice would, however, be to declare the results of the winning candidate null and void for their failing to stop their supporters from resorting to such a dangerous practice. I can assure all that if all that is done even in one case, it will act as a strong deterrent.
For the information of all and sundry, this was done by the late Lt General Fazle Haq, the governor of the erstwhile Northwest Frontier Province in the 1980s, and it was very effective. Celebratory firing was a regular practice in those days during weddings and at times ‘professional’ firing teams were hired by the groom’s party to celebrate the occasion. The late general had given orders that if any such celebratory firing took place, the groom and his father would be taken into custody and kept behind bars for 30 days.
As luck would have it, soon a politically influential family got involved and the groom and his father were put in the lock-up. After about three or four days, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Peshawar, finding the governor in a good mood at the Peshawar airport where he had come to receive then prime minister Muhammad Khan Junejo, pleaded for the release of the groom and the father. Those who were within the listening range of the two would know of the general’s outburst, who harshly rebuked the SSP and ordered the detention to be extended by another 30 days. Now, who could dare fire a single shot thereafter even on the wedding of his most beloved son? But can we find someone of that calibre among our present order-givers?
Colonel (retd) Riaz Jafri
Published in The Express Tribune, August 26th, 2013.
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