Politicians gang up to spin negative stories about ECP

Politicians need to have thick skins and no spine to survive in their profession and the variety we have in our country is quite hardened in this respect. You cannot beat them by mere howling via media outlets.

If in doubt, get ready for the return of Nawab Aslam Raisani as the Chief Minister of Balochistan by the mid-night of Wednesday. After a stunningly staged picket of the Hazaras in Quetta to protest over the mass scale killings of their community, Islamabad had to enforce the governor’s rule in Balochistan. A joint parliamentary sitting was needed to approve this decision within two months. The government tried hard but failed to develop confidence for summoning the constitutionally enjoined sitting. Without the parliamentary approval of the Governor’s rule, the government could get rid of Raisani by voting him out after restoration of the provincial assembly. It again failed to manage decisive numbers to manage the same and Raisani is all set to savour the last laugh.

He had been firmly telling the government emissaries that after automatic restoration of his assembly, he intended to continue until completion of his constitutional term, i.e. until April 6, 2013. That obviously clouded the possibility of holding the national and provincial assembly polls in Balochistan on the same day. To some extra-parliamentary forces that Raisini trusts, he had conveyed a different message, though: after restoration, he will ask for dissolution of the provincial assembly on the night of March 15 without much ado.

Some armchair promoters and defenders of “clean politics” are thus wrong to presume that the strict application of articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution by the Election Commission will disqualify a substantive number of our leading politicians from contesting the next election.

Since the days of Governor General Ghulam Muhammad in the early 1950s, constant attempts have been made to diligently vet our politicians.

Field Marshall Ayub Khan tried to apply EBDO in the 1960s for the same purpose and recently in our history, General Musharraf also worked hard to weed out the “corrupt and incompetent” types from our political scene.

The Election Commission of these days is trying to repeat history. It has been working overtime to evolve mechanisms for denying the corrupt kind the opportunity to participate in the next election. With the same intent, it is also seeking additional information on potential candidates by introducing complicated and lengthy nomination papers.

The ministry of law and justice was certainly late in conveying its reservations on the proposed changes and the Election Commission refused to entertain any of them. Being the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari is entitled to make the final decision but he is playing hard to get. Instead of waiting, the EC held an urgent meeting Monday and decided to order the printing of revamped nomination papers.

After taking the said decision, some Election Commission members did not sound “proper” by breaking the news through some journalists of their liking. No member of the national assembly dared to react over the decision of printing of nomination papers, however, without waiting for the presidential approval. The hardened politicians rather opted to speak through comrades sitting in the senate with a vocal PPP senator, Saeed Ghani, taking the lead.

Pressing for an adjournment motion, he delivered a long speech to take on the “self-righteous arrogance, publicly displayed by some members of the Election Commission.”

Maula Bux Chandio went a step further. Disregarding his reputation of being soft and friendly, he took on the Election Commission with daring words and a defiant tone. He was particularly upset with the position that the Election Commission did not require presidential approval for introducing new questions in the nomination papers. “Such approval was just a formality having no legal worth,” a member of the Election Commission had told a journalist. Chandio believed otherwise.

“The Election Commission decided to disregard the president, he claimed, “just because he is Asif Ali Zardari and he represents the PPP, a party most judges hate from heart of their hearts.”

Politicians, in short, are fast ganging up to spin negative stories about the Election Commission, much before it starts addressing its original task and shallow howls by our moral brigade has provoked them for it.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2013.