Will Election Be Held On Time?

Certain developments that took place on Wednesday are casting doubts about the holding of general elections on July 25th.

Initially, it was Balochistan’s Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti who on Wednesday morning called for a month-long delay in the general elections. Later, MQM’s Faisal Sabzwari came up with a similar demand seeking postponement of the election. And finally, the PTI’s surprised backtracking from the Punjab caretaker CM’s name Nasir Khosa, nominated by the PTI itself, caused serious doubts about the upcoming polls.

Bugti submitted a resolution in the Balochistan Assembly demanding that the general elections should be held in August because the majority of the population intends to go to Saudi Arabia in July to perform Haj. He wants the one-month delay, ignoring the fact that the Haj this year precisely falls in the second half of August when Bugti wants the election to be held. Within hours of this election delay demand coming from Quetta, Faisal Sabzwari of the MQM spoke to the media in Karachi and demanded that the general elections should be delayed till the third-party audit of the 2017 census and the consequent delimitation of the constituencies.

While the voices from Quetta and Karachi sought the delay in elections in an unambiguous manner, the PTI from Lahore contributed towards making the elections doubtful by its surprising decision of withdrawing the name of Nasir Khosa for the caretaker chief minister.

The party claims that it has withdrawn the name — the PTI had recommended itself — over “public backlash” but others doubt and smell a rat. Although, the PML-N could contest that the PTI could not withdraw once the appointment has been finalised and announced after due consultation process between the chief minister and the provincial leader of the opposition, this unexpected u-turn from the PTI has made its own role suspicious.

Does the PTI want the election on July 25th? This is the question which the media raised immediately after the PTI’s u-turn on Nasir Khosa. It is pertinent to mention here that Khosa was the nominee of the PTI and it is said that the leader of the opposition in Punjab had given Khosa’s name to the Punjab chief minister Punjab following Imran Khan’s clearance.

On Nasir Khosa’s name, there has not even been any noticeable opposition whether in the mainstream media or in the social media, yet the PTI used the excuse of “public backlash” for rejecting its own nominee.

A few weeks ago, Imran Khan did talk of possible election delay due to complexities relating to the delimitation of constituencies. The army chief had also apprehended, a few months ago, that the election may be delayed for a month or two for the same reasons.

An Urdu columnist recently had also quoted Chief Justice Saqib Nisar as having feared that the election might be delayed for a month or so if the delimitation process did not complete. The CJP later categorically said the election would be held on time and no delay of even a day would be allowed.

The Islamabad High Court, which is presently hearing the petitions challenging delimitation of constituencies, has so far declared delimitations of 10 districts including Jhang, Jhelum, Toba Tek Singh, Lower Dir, Ghotki, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Kharan, Haripur and Bahawalpur as void.

Once all the petitions challenging the issues relating to the delimitation are decided by the Islamabad High Court, these cases are expected to be taken up before the Supreme Court by the Election Commission, which is otherwise all prepared to hold elections on July 25th.

(Published in Monthly Tribute International on 01-06-2018)