The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Sunday urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce schedule for general elections immediately to cope with “uncertainty” around the polls.
The delimitation of constituencies must also be completed quickly and efficiently and under no circumstances used as an excuse to delay the elections any further, it said.
The governing council of the HRCP held a meeting in Lahore on Sunday on issues such as delay in general elections and increasing polarised environment. The development was shared in a press release that was also shared on X (formerly Twitter).
“HRCP insists that the Election Commission of Pakistan announce an election schedule promptly such that polls are held as close as possible to the stipulated 90-day period,” it said.
The commission said it was also concerned by scope for manipulating the electoral process by institutions such as the National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA). It asked the ECP to guard against that possibility.
Further, it also raised concerns over increasing polarisation in the country.
“HRCP is greatly alarmed by the increasingly polarised environment, in which religious and sectarian divisions are being exacerbated reportedly to carve out artificial political space for far right parties.
“The divisive and violent tactics used by such parties to build their political identities—particularly at the expense of religious minorities and sects—is eating into organic political and civic spaces,” it said.
The continuing terrorist violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had also made political parties more apprehensive about campaigning in the province, HRCP highlighted.
“Apart from ensuring that free, fair, and credible elections take place, the test of the current caretaker government is to see not only whether it will protect and respect people’s right to protest peacefully, but also whether it will respond to the issues that ordinary citizens are mobilising around,” it said.
Delay in general elections
General elections in Pakistan, due to take place this year, are feared to be delayed by many months, after the Election Commission of Pakistan announced launching of fresh delimitation of constituencies in accordance with the results of digital population census 2023.
Last month, the Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved the first-ever digital Population and Housing Census 2023. A meeting of the CCI was convened by then prime minister Shehbaz Sharif to decide on the fate of the census in 2023 amid reports of divisions among coalition partners.
The approval aroused fears of an inevitable delay in elections as the ECP will be required some time to re-do the delimitation exercise.
This week, the ECP in a statement said the list of final constituencies as per new delimitation would be published by November 30, 2023. The election watchdog decided to shorten the time frame after consultation with political parties. The previous date to complete the process was December 14, 2023.
It is pertinent to mention that elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are already witnessing inordinate delay – keeping in view that both the provincial legislatures were dissolved in January this year and respective caretaker governments have since been running the affairs of the two provinces.
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