Democracy has to be protected, nurtured and promoted by all stakeholders, including the incumbent interim government. Ironically, however, the Caretaker Prime Minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, hasn’t ended speculation that the elections are going to be delayed indefinitely.
According to media reports, he has only said that the caretakers would ensure that the upcoming general elections are held in the “most transparent and impartial manner” and these elections should be acceptable to all.
Whatever he has said is quite reasonable and acceptable for which he deserves commendation. Unfortunately, however, he has conveniently skipped the question that people have been asking since the arrival of the interim setup in the country. The question is whether or not these elections will be held in the constitutionally stipulated time period of 90 days or in a timely manner.
He seems to have already answered this question through one of his ministers who has stated that holding elections is Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP’s) responsibility. We all know that ECP is an autonomous and permanent constitutional body responsible for holding free and fair elections in the country.
We also know that ECP has become the fourth important institutional arrangement (the other three being executive, legislature and judiciary) since it refused to obey the apex court’s order to hold elections in Punjab on May 14.
That the caretaker setup’s ambivalence in relation to the imperative of “timely” elections is quite meaningful is a fact. In my view, they will never come clean about it because of some obvious reasons; they would like to cling on to power indefinitely.
Abdul Basit (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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