On 30th May 2015, the local body elections in KPK marked the most violent elections in the history of Pakistan, far more gruesome in nature than the 2013 elections. About 19 districts bore witness to 21 reported deaths, and nearly 100 incidents of violence. Not only were the elections violent, but were ridden with accusations of rigging, poor planning and mediocre execution by the Provincial Government as well as the Election Commission. According to a report by free and fair election network (FAFEN), 26% rigging took place in these elections, a percentage which if true, is shameful. It is pertinent to mention here that FAFEN is the same organization that has been praised and mentioned on several occasions by PTI chief Imran khan to validate his claim of rigging in 2013 general elections. The election commission received more than 300 complaints from Peshawar district alone. The mismanagement was no hidden fact as electronic media has already shown how electoral conduct was made fun of when ballot papers were brought out of the polling stations. A series of instances of misconduct show just how tainted the entire process was; a female officer was arrested while stamping ballot papers for PTI, a sitting minister was alleged of abducting ballot boxes. (While the issue of the arrest of the minister remains at large a contentious one, justice can only be done by discussing it in entirety, I therefore temporarily withhold my critique on this issue until my next article).What probably left us baffled the most was a video of a minister “threatening” local body’s candidates to support PTI or otherwise face the wrath of the provincial government (which still has a tenure of 3 more years).
PTI’s ally in the KPK government, Jamat e Islamiaccused PTI of massive rigging, claiming that “PTI is champion of rigging”. JI further accused that rigging was planned in the chief minister’s house in KPK. PervaizKhattakdenied any such allegations and said that it is the election commission that is responsible for all the mismanagement. Alleging the election commission of mismanagement is nothing short of a flimsy claim and can most certainly notdevolvethe ministry of liability, for law and order is ultimately the responsibility of the chief executive of the province.Let me ask Mr. Khattak and his party chief that why were they then bashing the Chief Minister Punjab and the law minister Punjab for the model town incident? The killings were orchestrated by the police and not the chief minister hence their demand for resignation of the chief minister and the law minister was then pointless. Similarly, the general elections of 2013 were held under election commission of Pakistan so why was PTI accusing Nawaz Sharif of the rigging and demanding his resignation, they should have rather demanded resignation of the then chief election commissioner Fakrudin G Ibrahim. There is no room for double standards for PTI in Pakistan’s politics since it is a “party of change”.It is absolutely ridiculous to shift the entire onus on the police for a job in which you have proved yourself incompetent. If there is any mismanagement during the election process, the responsibility is placed on the election commission. Then what is your responsibility sir? If you are not responsible for anything or you don’t have any authority over anything, why do we even need you?
When inquired about rigging, IK said that if someone has reservations he should go to the election commission. This is the most ridiculous and careless statement that Mr. Khan could have come up with. We are witness to his “dharna siyasat” where he was of the view that election tribunals wereincapable of addressing their grievances regarding the 2013 general elections and hence a judicial commission should be formed to probe into the rigging allegations. One cannothelp but ask Mr. Khan why the same shouldn’t be applied in his province as well. Clearly, if Mr. Khan was not wrong before then he certainly is now.
Just when I was in the middle of writing this, I got to know that Mr. Khan has said that he is ready to hold fresh elections if all parties agree. This is in fact an admission of failure that the elections were not held in free and fair environment. Imran khan has always been a staunch supporter of the idea that tax payers should have the right to question where there tax money is spent and that it should be spent wisely. Building upon this notion, I ask him how he can spend such a huge sum of money on re-election, especially when there is no guarantee that a re-election will be conducted in a transparent procedure.How can you ensure free and fair elections when you don’t identify the culprits ofrigged elections and punish them? This is exactly what you had been saying on the “container”when you professed that the issue was not only about the rigged elections (referring to general elections of 2013) but that the fate of all future elections was at stake.
The interplay of power dynamics at the hands of PTI was clearly visible when they claimed that they were the only party vested with the right to hold local bodies’ elections. However, the fact that these elections were held on court orders, clearly strikes down the possibility of any political genius and magnanimity on PTI’s part.Showing no confidence in election tribunals, bashing PMLN’s leadership of rigging election without any proof and then demanding PM’s resignation on mere accusations were big mistakes committed made by Khan sahab. It seems that IK is getting the taste of his own medicine and now he finds all these allegations and demands ridiculous. A wise man once said “Everything is amusing as long as you’re not the target”. The tables have turned, Imran khan is the target of many accusations and now the spectators are eager to witness just how Mr. Khan chooses to respond to the said allegations.
