Protests and elections

Indeed there is a lot of room for improvement, but the rubbishing of an entire electoral process is irresponsible.

Familiar rumblings of discontent with democracy resonated noisily in two separate speeches on May 11 — one by Paksitan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan and the other by Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT)’s Tahirul Qadri. The tone and tenor of both speeches is worrying for a fledgling democratic system in Pakistan — one that has been set up at the cost of sweat, tears and indeed blood, and one that has never before seemed so advanced in terms of continuity and intensity. PTI’s rally was ostensibly held to pressure the government to have fingerprint verification in four constituencies, but Imran Khan and his party’s rhetoric showed that the underlying message was far more sweeping: It was a vote of no-confidence in the entire electoral process. And that’s a dangerous message being delivered by a mainstream party that is the third largest in the National Assembly.

Among other things, Mr Khan demanded that the current members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) resign immediately, stating that they were vulnerable to political influence and pressure. Yet, isn’t Mr Khan doing just that — putting political pressure on the ECP and its members? The current set-up of the ECP has been put together under the provisions of the Constitution; one that now states that ECP members must be chosen through a consensus of both the government and the opposition. He has called for reforms in the structure of the ECP, but the process was reformed only recently through a Constitutional amendment. No one will fault the PTI for pushing for a better and more effective electoral process — as Mr Khan did with the demand that electronic voting machines be introduced across the board to make verification easier. Indeed there is a lot of room for improvement and evolution of a nascent system. But the effective rubbishing of an entire historic exercise is irresponsible and unfairly sweeping. As for Qadri’s video statements that change was only possible through a revolution and that the system was not working, we have heard this rhetoric before, and we know where this road leads.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2014.

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