At issue has been the allegation of rigging in the 2013 general election. There is no doubt that rigging took place, but whether it was on a scale sufficient to alter the outcome is yet another contentious issue that seemed insoluble — but that may change. The chairman of the PTI Imran Khan has indicated his approval to a recommendation made by his party’s core committee. The PTI should accept the government offer of a judicial commission to look into the 2013 elections — a considerable shift from the ‘stuckist’ position of the last four months. This may herald a return to some kind of normality in parliamentary terms. The PTI has been absent, and its return is to be linked to the outcome of the judicial commission. Presumably if this is not to the liking of the PTI, then the nation is back to square one, but for the moment there is an easing of tensions. An agreed draft is awaited that only lacks some “suitable words” for the situation to ease further. A presidential ordinance will be issued for the establishment of the commission. We can but hope that this begins to draw a line under a summer of turbulent political activity that produced considerably more heat than light. But getting unstuck will take more than ‘suitable words’.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 23rd, 2014.
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NS is on a slippery slope. On one hand, all four constituencies accused of rigging are of high profile hawks like Speaker, Defense/Wapda, and Railway ministers, so any fair investigations may sweat these gentlemen, on other hand to save his government he took support from some of the most corrupt politicians in PPP, JUIF and PkMAP. So now when he is willing to make a judicial commission he needs approval of both these groups, which make his job very hard. It appears growing popularity of demand for free and fair elections and thus investigation into 2013 election, and pressure from Generals concern with deteriorating law and order plus economy are forcing NS to go for some settlement with PTI. So lets hope we get something good for the people of Pakistan.
Maybe the Editor should save some of his wrath for Sharif who let a legal/justifiable protest get out of hand? Yeah IK crossed the "line" but it's Sharif's job to enforce that "line" and he avoided making a hard decision like he seems to avoid every hard decision. Maybe he couldn't find anyone who wanted to sit on a committee to solve the problem?