It is absolutely clear that a fair, free and transparent election does not suit Pakistan
KARACHI: Can we really afford a fair, free and transparent election? Let’s try to find the answer in the light of Karl Marx’s famous saying that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, and then as a farce. The only free and fair elections that the country has seen were in 1970 and they proved disastrous.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League won 160 out of 162 seats in East Pakistan in the National Assembly, whereas Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s PPP only managed to capture 81 out of 138 seats in West Pakistan. The country’s establishment, afraid of losing its dominant position in the state, denied victory to the Awami League. The establishment, in consultation with Bhutto, launched ‘Operation Searchlight’ to attack Awami League members. Finally, Mujib was arrested and imprisoned in West Pakistan. While the army failed to quash the Bengali resistance, East Pakistan emerged as an independent country — Bangladesh — of course, with assistance from India.
The story did not end here. The success of Bengali nationalism invigorated similar ethno-linguistic aspirations in West Pakistan’s smaller provinces, especially in Balochistan and the NWFP. While the PPP led the central government, nationalist leaders united under the National Awami Party (NAP) and joined hands with the JUI in both, Balochistan and the NWFP, to form coalition governments. The secessionist movements that were galvanised by Bengali nationalism rapidly gained ground in both provinces. Prime Minister Bhutto, despite the coalition government partnership with the NAP and the JUI, ordered the army to use force to stop Baloch and Pasthun nationalists from instigating a separatist insurgency in February 1973. Bhutto also forged a conspiracy to trap the NAP leader, Wali Khan, and ordered security forces to arrest him. In February 1973, he dismissed the NAP-JUI government in Balochistan; soon after, the NAP-JUI government in NWFP resigned in protest.
It is absolutely clear that a fair, free and transparent election does not suit Pakistan. The outcome of such elections is likely to result in further disintegration of the country. Therefore, frankly speaking, to keep the country intact, all we need is a truly patriotic establishment — an establishment consisting of honest, clean and patriotic people. It should form a caretaker government consisting of technocrats and bureaucrats with proven track records for a period of at least five years to complete electoral reforms and educate people about the sanctity of their votes.
The first step of such a government would be to conduct local body elections and then allocate development funds based on the results. The local bodies representatives must be asked to maintain transparency in awarding tenders and every rupee spent must be open for audit. Those found involved in corruption or nepotism should be disqualified and punished.
Khawaja Amer
Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2014.
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