Feeling the heat of enormous criticism of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over its apparent inability to address their reservations on key electoral issues, the chief election commissioner (CEC) on Thursday lashed out at the political parties terming their allegations as “false and baseless”.
“I have full faith in the integrity, independence and competence of all the members as well as the staff of the ECP. We have only one objective - free, fair and transparent elections. I only request that all parties and leaders assist us in achieving this dream instead of making false and baseless allegations,” CEC Justice (r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim said in a statement rare of its kind.
“Some political parties have recently expressed reservations against the members and CEC of the ECP and demanded its dissolution. This criticism is most unfortunate as we are only six weeks from the expiry of the term of present government and on the verge of a smooth transition from one democratic government to the next for the very first time,” Ebrahim said.
His statement comes at a time when almost all the mainstream political parties, particularly those in or linked to the opposition, have joined hands to voice categorical opposition to the ECP. While Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam termed the electoral body a ‘spokesman of PML-N’ and the Nawaz League staged a pro-ECP sit-in outside its office for its (ECP’s) empowerment, the PTI and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek demanded straightaway dissolution of the commission.
The PAT on Thursday even moved the Supreme Court for getting the appointments of the CEC and ECP members declared as void ab initio (having not existed). In addition, the parties like Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and Awami National Party have also strongly taken on the ECP for its failure to honour the SC verdict on the delimitation of constituencies in Karachi. Furthermore, numerous parties have staged sit-ins outside the ECP office in Karachi.
Adding to the opposition parties’ concerns, the ECP has softened the ban on recruitments in government departments and hinted at lifting the ban on public funds’ diversion, saying the matter was under consideration.
The commission has declared the constitutional bodies exempted from the ban.Responding to the CEC statement on political parties, the PTI’s Chief Election Commissioner Hamid Khan advocate said, “The political parties have the right to criticise the ECP if they feel that the commission fails to perform its duties. It’s our democratic right nobody can deprive us of. Why not criticise the ECP when it keeps acting like a political entity and fails to honours its promises and tall claims?”
To a query, Hamid Khan said that the PTI wanted the ECP dissolution because of its four partisan members. “The CEC is a credible man. We have reservations on the four members who are puppets of political parties. They dance to their tunes. They must be sent packing and new members be chosen,” he told this reporter.
Requesting anonymity, a former ECP official said, the commission’s management had landed in a troubled situation following reservations shown by political parties. “No matter how legitimate the ECP constitutionally stands, the fact that political parties have serious reservations has weakened its credibility. The only way to deal with this situation is to address the parties’ reservation, or the legitimacy of the general polls would be under dark clouds,” he said.
On Thursday, the leaders from Jama’at-e-Islami, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Sunni Tehreek and Sindh’s nationalist parties that had staged sit-ins in Karachi against the ECP for its backtracking on the delimitation issue, held a meeting with the CEC and ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan. Apart from PML-N and JI, no other mainstream party including PML-Q, PTI, ANP and JUI-F showed up for the meeting that greatly undermined the event’s significance.
Briefing the media, Ishtiak Khan said that the political parties’ reservations would be removed. The case pertaining to the delimitation exercise in Karachi was pending in the SC and the ECP would honour the court verdict, he said while seemingly overlooking the fact that the SC had clearly ordered the constituencies’ delimitation last year and the ECP repeatedly reiterated to conduct the electoral exercise, having failed which, it became a subject of enormous criticism from the political parties, civil society, electoral watchdogs, general public and media.
Terming the political parties demands as ‘legitimate’, Khan said that the ECP had agreed to all the demands including constituencies’ delimitation and removal of discrepancies during voters’ verification in Karachi. Earlier, Khan had informed the meeting participants that 75 percent of the voters’ verification exercise was done in Karachi.
The ECP secretary also said that one army troop would be deployed at every polling station in Karachi during the general polls, without elaborating whether a single military man could ensure foolproof security at each polling station. The secretary defence would be approached for this purpose, he added. The ECP, Ishtiak Khan said, would contact the State Bank of Pakistan and the Federal Board of Revenue for acquiring the data of tax, electricity and gas defaulters to stop them from contesting the general elections.