ISLAMABAD: The Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) has finally issued its much-awaited report into last year’s general elections in Pakistan, in which the Group has highlighted the conditions which appeared to limit fundamental political rights and impacted one party’s ability to fairly contest the election.
Additionally, the COG has noted that a “shutdown of cellular services on election night, which reduced the transparency of the process and impacted the efficiency of receiving results.”
The report has concluded that these developments may have impinged on the credibility, transparency, and inclusiveness of the electoral process in Pakistan.
The 161-page report titled “Pakistan General Election 8 February 2024” says several critical decisions made by key institutions throughout the election process had significant impacts on the level playing field for the holding of democratic elections.
On the role of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Supreme Court, the report said, “Perhaps most critical were the decisions of the ECP and the Supreme Court in relation to the bat symbol and the Supreme Court’s reversal of the lifetime ban. Other significant institutional decisions included arrests of the opposition members, the decision to shut down the cellular network on election day, and decisions by media regulators regarding the prohibition of certain broadcast content,” the report notes.
“When looked at in isolation, some – though not all – of the arguments advanced by these institutions in support of their actions appear justifiable and with a solid legal basis. Yet, when viewed together, they present a picture of an electoral environment in which decisions by key institutions consistently limited the ability of one particular party to contest the elections. Ultimately, these decisions impinged on the credibility, transparency, and inclusiveness of the electoral process,” notes the COG reports
The Group observed that the fraught political environment leading into the elections represented a continuation of the tensions that have characterised Pakistani politics since its return to multi-party democracy.
The COG also highlighted the role of the security apparatus in this regard. “Pakistan’s electoral politics appear to be characterised by a zero-sum, winner-takes-all approach, in which parties are incentivised to take a maximalist approach to achieving and maintaining power, even at the expense of the political rights of others. This is a pattern that has played out over successive electoral cycles, with different parties at the helm. The conditions that produce these incentives stem from a conception of the state, by the security apparatus that prioritises security above the flourishing of democratic institutions.
The Group regards as fallacious the notion that security must come at the expense of democracy,” according to the report.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025