Whatever the Senate of Pakistan did yesterday was expected, it is highly disappointing nevertheless. With the elections just a few weeks away, it has passed a resolution seeking to delay the February 8 general elections due to security concerns.
The other reason, according to the resolution, is harshness of the current winter which has affected life in northern areas of the country in particular. These grounds, in my view, are untenable, to say the least.
Firstly, there has been a spike in acts of terrorism in recent weeks and months. But the country is in the throes of violence ever since the emergence of Tehreek-e-Taliban in 2005.
The return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan a couple of years ago has only added to the challenge of militancy in Pakistan. Secondly, insofar as the issue of extremely harsh weather in northern parts of the country is concerned, it doesn’t create the required ground so as to force the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to delay the polls.
It increasingly appears that the honorable senators have not acted on their own volition when they demanded the ECP postpone the elections; they appeared to have obliged certain political parties that are seeking deferment of elections for some obvious reasons.
It is, however, strongly expected that the ECP will surely fulfill its constitutional duty by holding polls in accordance with the schedule that it has already announced. After all, the concerns voiced by the senators do not successfully paint a situation that can constitute a case of force majeure.
Ahmad Hasan Advocate (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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