Clearer waters

Our main concern now should be to ensure the elections go ahead as per a feasible schedule.

It has been said before, it has been said again. After yet another meeting, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has reiterated that it is simply not logistically possible to conduct Local Bodies (LB) polls in Punjab and Sindh by December 7, the date set as the deadline by the Supreme Court (SC). The ECP secretary general has said that the Printing Corporation of Pakistan has made it clear that it will not be able to print the 500 million ballot papers required by that date, while the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has also stated that it cannot provide the required magnetic ink within this time frame. The ECP further said that neither of the two provinces had notified rules or carried out the delimitation process and law officers who appeared before the court had misled it on this count. LB polls in Balochistan will be conducted on schedule, by December 7.

There have been too many murky waters lapping around the LB process. We would really like them to become clearer. The process of setting up local governments is an important one. It should not become shrouded in controversy and doubt. The stand-off on this matter between the SC and the ECP has continued for too long. What is now most important of all, as the ECP prepares to submit its latest position before the apex Court, is that all concerned players cooperate to ensure the polls are conducted as efficiently and smoothly as is possible. Of course, this needs to happen quickly, but what is also important is that it happen properly. The ground realities the ECP has referred to cannot obviously be ignored. Provisions will need to be made keeping these in mind and an effort launched to remove the controversies that have wrapped themselves around the LB polls. Our main concern now should be to ensure they go ahead as per a feasible schedule, with the ECP working to ensure all provisions are in place and the local governance people urgently required can be put into place with as little loss of time as is possible.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2013.

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