Daska debacle

The Election Commission’s inquiry report on irregularities in the Daska NA-75 by-poll is a telling tale of connivance and misuse of power. The elections in February this year were marred with allegations of ballot tampering, abduction of officers on duty and excessive police and administration influence. The probe has confirmed the premise, and categorically states that police and the local administration failed to play their designated role as per law, and were found to be puppets in the hands of their unlawful masters. This charge and finding is too serious to be ignored, and it is incumbent upon the government, as well as the Election Commission, to expose the black sheep involved in fabricating and undermining the dignity of civil service and the essence of adult franchise.

The fact that an independent investigation has come up with circumstantial evidence of rigging and the disappearance of over 20 presiding officers is unfortunate and disgusting. The Election Commission, thus, was well within its rights to suspend the flawed verdict on February 19, and order re-election in the Daska constituency. Notwithstanding litigations, the apex court too endorsed the ECP stance, and a subsequent ballot in April returned PML-N’s Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar in a cut-throat competition against PTI’s Ali Asjad Malhi.

The blatant interference from the district administration spontaneously points a finger at the Punjab government, as well as authorities at the federation. This was not only undemocratic but also against the established lawful norms of unbiasness. The sanctity of the ballot has been encroached upon by this bewildered act. The government must do some damage control, and bring the culprits to book. Though none can absolve themselves from responsibility, it remains to be seen how the ECP asserts itself as an independent constitutional body.

The Daska fiasco has once again stressed the importance of electoral reforms. This is not for the first time that the state machinery has been used to derive preplanned results. It had been going on for decades. This is where it necessitates the desire and inevitability of joining heads for rewriting free and fair elections’ rules and regulations. Let Daska be a lesson to be learnt in all democratic humility.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2021.

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