The Election Commission of Pakistan has not been doing its job. Ever since it refrained from holding the Islamabad local body polls despite a Supreme Court order, and after the failure to hold general elections to the Punjab and Sindh Assemblies within 90 days of their dissolution, there have been doubts about its ability to conduct a fair general election. The ECP failure to announce a date for the general election that fell due after the National Assembly was dissolved on August 12, have made those doubts apparently a self-fulfilling prophecy. More dangerously, the airy talk of elections going to January, February or beyond, even though the Constitution mandates that they be held within 90 days, or by 7 November. For that, an election schedule should have been issued by September 23, which was not done,
The delay, which was made on the plea that they could only be carried out in a certain amount of time, and that they had to be carried out first, has raised doubts about the independence of the ECP itself. Clearly, the ECP or any of its members, have no personal or institutional interest in when elections take place, or who wins them, many other forces do care, including those which are not political parties. It is unfortunate that any impression has been created that the ECP functions according to the wishes of one particular body.
In the scheme of the Constitution, elections are essential whether they are for a union council or for the Presidency, and it is the ECP which is supposed to conduct them freely, fairly and transparently. It is thus the key institution in the country’s constitutional scheme. For any other institution or individual to interfere in its function compromises its independence, and thus makes nonsense of the constitutional scheme, which can only be considered democratic if election results are to be trusted. The Chief Election is a senior civil servant, all his predecessors having been members of the judiciary. Because the tenure is of five years, a CEC normally conducts only one election in his tenure. The present CEC should ensure that the elections he holds are not marred by irregularities, and are so far that even losers will admit it. There is no need for the CEC to anything less than his job, not to come under the influence of anyone.
