Polls’ fairness appears just as bleak as 2018 elections: PILDAT

PILDAT issues annual report, says democracy just as vulnerable and manipulated as in 2018

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) said on Tuesday that the upcoming general elections’ fairness appears as bleak as it was in 2018 polls, saying as a result of it the democracy was as vulnerable as it was five years ago.

The PILDAT report bluntly stated that “neither the Army is learning to steer clear of politics and focus solely on the security domain defined in the Constitution, nor the politicians have agreed on an unbreakable set of rules to never seek or receive the Army’s support for coming into power.”

In its Quality of Democracy Report for 2023, it noted that the National Assembly and its members allowed themselves to be manipulated by one elected government to the other, with active control of the establishment, in carrying out basic functions such as legislation.

It also observed that the Senate could not evolve beyond a debating club, adding poor performance was evident in four provincial assemblies as each provincial government used provincial legislatures to rubber-stamp required legislation.

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PILDAT analysed that unencumbered by the criticism against him for playing a blatantly partisan role, “President Dr Arif Alvi continued to use his office for pushing for the PTI’s agenda in holding a premature or early general election.”

His role became especially controversial in appointing a date for general election to the dissolved Punjab Assembly when he unilaterally, and without constitutional authority, appointed the date of the election, it added.

The report noted that Dr Alvi chose to defy his constitutional role repeatedly in giving his assent to various laws passed by the Parliament after the coalition government came in place of the PTI government in April 2022, and continued to do so in 2023, especially in refusing assent to amendments in laws.

The PILDAT stated that the Supreme Court has no constitutional role in appointing the date of the election or in influencing the ECP or the president to do so. To some, it added, the ECP’s independence was compromised when it was made to consult the president and announce the election date. 

In the report, the PILDAT said that democracy in Pakistan was stuck in a familiar and deepening rut at the end of 2023, saying the past year had only made the hoped transition towards improved democracy that much harder for the country now called an electoral autocracy by some international democracy rating think tanks.

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PILDAT pointed out that remedies and lessons are obvious but the people who have the power and capacity to pull the country out of the rut have not taken the right steps for the last ‘seventy years’, borrowing the phrase of former Chief of Army Staff, Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa used while referring to his institution’s interference in the country’s political affairs.

PILDAT believed that the transition could be initiated with a simple change of perspective and by marshalling the required will followed by purposeful consultations in the National Security Committee.

PILDAT advised that “the only option available was to urgently design and execute a transition from the so-called hybrid system to a normal functional democracy.”

Within its report, PILDAT analysed that “political parties and popular leaders continually suffer from a crisis of confidence as their political fate depends not on their popularity or the cogence of their governance policies but how adept they are at keeping the GHQ positively engaged and play second fiddle.”

The cyclical political process in Pakistan also forces political campaigns to oscillate between pro and anti-establishment and not focus on serious solutions to Pakistan’s economic and governance issues.

PILDAT believed that delay in holding the general election has meant an unusually prolonged role in office of the five caretaker governments in Pakistan which raised valid concerns that the continuation of unelected caretaker governments for extended periods runs counter to the spirit of democracy and the Constitution

“PILDAT believes the prospect of its fairness appears just as bleak as the 2018 General Election largely agreed to be a manipulated election,” it said.

Despite the oft-repeated interference in the political process, it maintained, leading political parties appear “addicted to the establishment’s patronage” to win a managed public popularity and form fractured governments.

“PILDAT believes that conclusion of the 5-year term of the 15th National Assembly in 2023 left democracy just as vulnerable and manipulated when the assembly members took oath on August 12, 2018,” the report read.

“The National Assembly and its members allowed themselves to be manipulated by one elected government to the other, with active control of the establishment, in carrying out basic functions such as legislation.”

Similarly, it continued, “Senate could not evolve beyond a debating club” where, instead of initiating and leading a meaningful engagement on policy issues, its sessions remained just as mired in partisan political blame-game, infighting and political mocking of opponents.

PILDAT believes, to its credit, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) withstood public pressure from a leading political party as well as the Supreme Court in 2023 until the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) voiced his opinion in a letter to presiding officers of the Parliament complaining of ‘judicial overbearing’ diluting its Constitutional writ.

PILDAT believes Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, latest, and, somewhat controversial, achievement to date in the context of Pakistan’s democracy, has been nudging the reluctant decision-makers to finally appoint a firm date and issue a schedule for the 12th general election to be held on February 08, 2024.

News media of Pakistan including press, electronic or even social media, has not seen an improvement in freedom in 2023. “2023 proved yet again the silencing of independent voices, the management of media and the propagation of the sickening culture of buying media voices in support of or against a political party or group to sow polarisation and dissent in the society,” it said.

In addition, it said, the media is not allowed to air images, messages or statements from political leaders that have fallen out of favour, adding the topics including Balochistan and Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement which were banned from mainstream media coverage are still banned.