Govt vs ECP

Recent days have seen cabinet members and ruling party leaders demanding the chief election commissioner’s resignation

The Election Commission of Pakistan finally spoke out against the bribery and rigging allegations being thrown about by Railways Minister Azam Swati and other cabinet members, demanding that they cough up some evidence to back up their claims. Recent days have also seen cabinet members and ruling party leaders demanding the chief election commissioner’s resignation, with at least one prominent leader blaming rigging on him in 2018 elections. The incumbent was appointed in 2020.

The ECP also appears to be preparing to take Swati and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry to court over the allegations, which could be a serious headache for the ruling party. Chaudhry has already started walking back on his comments by trying to differentiate between criticism of individual ECP officers and of the ECP itself. However, it is Swati whose ‘burn it down’ comment is being seen as the most outrageous comment. Whether literal or figurative, there is no defending such a crass attack on a constitutional body, especially while sitting in a parliamentary chamber.

The PTI has established a reputation as poor losers, already an unfortunately low bar in Pakistan. Criticism of the ECP is part of the PTI’s established formula for whenever they lose an election. Defeat is always due to the corrupt system and not poor electioneering or unpopular candidates and is certainly not to be considered a referendum on the government’s performance. Such circumstances can only be considered when the opposition cries foul.

Curiously, although the chief election commissioner is required to be a neutral person, we must remind that the incumbent is a PTI appointee. If he is a “mouthpiece for the opposition”, as Chaudhry claims, why is no one calling out the people that appointed him? Is it because Imran Khan and his team actually did select a good CEC and these accusations are baseless and only meant as a deflection, or are they actually saying that the PTI chief and his advisers made a terrible pick? Neither scenario paints a positive picture of the ruling party’s top leaders.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2021.

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