Poll delay fears
It seems a spanner in the works is evident on the path of general elections. The assertion from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that upcoming elections would be held on the basis of the 2023 digital census has torpedoed the momentum of electioneering. He went on to say that a meeting of the Council of Common Interest would be convened shortly, and the ball will finally land with the Election Commission to take a call, accordingly. This new position is a point of concern, and could come to delay elections at a time when political instability is ripe, and organs of the state are in a policy disarray. Moreover, the surprised utterance is contravention to a stated objective that polls will be held without any delay after the completion of the current parliament’s term on August 12 within a span of 60 days as stipulated in the Constitution. If census 2023 results are to be entertained and applied to the electoral machinery, it will be like putting the cart before the horse, and opening a new Pandora’s Box.
This new contention is not known whether it is a policy statement of the 13-party coalition, or merely of the PML-N. The PPP had already distanced itself from any attempt to delay the polls, whereas the MQM nurses grievances over the results of the new census which, it says, has under-counted the urban population. Likewise, the Election Commission too is on record having said that elections will be held on previous census, as constituencies were demarcated over the same premise, and it would be an uphill task to indulge in new delimitations on the basis of new population displacement findings. It all boils down to the proposition that there is a policy confusion at work, and that too at the cost of degenerating an already volatile situation.
Timely holding of elections will have positive dividends on not only the political situation, but also on the economic health of the country. Census 2023 results will surely have long-term implications on distribution of resources and power-flexing of provinces. But making it a point to delay polls at this verge is inappropriate.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 3rd, 2023.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.