Broadly speaking, President of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former chief minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervez Elahi’s ‘ordeal’ clearly indicates two things: first, he’s being forced to repent certain sins that has perhaps never committed or these were actually committed by his party chief Imran Khan since the latter’s ouster from power in April last year.

This Chaudhry of Gujrat is being punished severely as a warning to Imran Khan in particular. Second, the incumbent government has injected a great deal of clarity into a widely held perception that it is having the same understanding and thought process in relation to PTI and its leadership as the then Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

In other words, the interim setup led by Anwaarul Haq Kakar is reading from the same page. Kakar, however, seems to have been displaying more hostility towards PTI than Shehbaz Sharif.

The way he assailed PTI over the May 9 incidents during his talk with foreign media says it all as he has clearly shown to all and sundry that he’s willing to give no quarter to the PTI and its leadership during the run-up to the general elections.

His approach to the PTI leads to a pertinent question: why don’t the caretakers mull over the possibility of banning this political entity for the greater good of the country? Although the job of this current caretaker setup, like any other interim setup’s, is to ensure holding of general election in a fair, free, transparent and timely manner, their strong anti-PTI bias has given birth to some legitimate fears of pre-poll rigging.

The caretakers, in my view, must come clean about this matter. In this regard, it is important to note that celebrated political scientist Robert Dahl had famously said that a fair and free election is defined as an election in which coercion is comparatively uncommon.

Samiullah Jan (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023