Preparing the ground

Assuming that the fallout from the JIT report does not precipitate an election — and there seems little chance of that — the next general election in Pakistan is going to be in 2018 and there is much to do before the electorate exercise their democratic right. To this end the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), retired Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza, has written letters to the heads of all the mainstream political parties, a move that is both timely and a cause for concern. The chief election commissioner has pointed out the urgent need to pass the election bill 2017 that is in essence the way paving legislation that will set in motion the many and complex processes that underpin a successful poll.

There are a range of electoral reforms necessary — delimitation linked to the results of the recent census, the training of 700,000 polling staff, the appointment and training of returning officers and district ROs, the printing and distribution of new forms and election material and vitally the enlistment of all the political parties and their active cooperation. The chief election commissioner has rightly pointed out that unless all of these processes and activities proceed in synchronicity to arrive at the same point of preparedness by the date of the election, then a successful exercise is made all the more difficult.

This is not the first time that the CEC has delivered a wake-up call to the legislature. He wrote to the National Assembly Speaker on 4^th April saying that the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms needed to bring its recommendations to parliament. He has now expressed regret that three months have passed without the bill coming before the legislature. We likewise express our regrets, nay concern, as the electoral clock is ticking and much of the work noted above is complex and time-consuming.

Whilst we do not wish to set hares running it is beginning to look suspiciously like foot dragging by parliamentarians, some of whom may find their seats at hazard. Pakistan needs the 2018 election if it is to set in stone a process of peaceful and lawful succession, drawing an emphatic line under the past. Hurry up, ladies and gentlemen.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2017.

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