Given polarisation the national politics has acquired over the last few years it's not just enough that general election should be held; it's important that it should be fair, free and transparent enough to be truly reflective of people's will. The fairness or transparency of polls is always critical to the democratic process, especially in the emerging situation in Pakistan where it is a make-or-break challenge for the democratic dispensation. A failed election would be far more catastrophic than no election - that's the measure of the seriousness of the challenge the newly sworn-in Chief Election Commissioner, former Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim is confronted with. But as the nation's good luck would have it, he is adequately determined and committed to meeting this challenge fairly and squarely - as he seems to be aware of the fact that the entire nation is standing at his back. That he is a unanimous choice of the contending forces across the aisle and those outside of the legislative houses and enjoys their confidence is certainly a rare happening in our times. The new CEC is no doubt an octogenarian and there has been some talk about his old age also. The CEC gives a plausible answer to ease such concerns: "I have vast experience of life, so old age has nothing to do with my performance", he says, adding his is only a one-point agenda and that's "public justice through free, fair and impartial elections". That said, however, one should remain mindful of the fact that one swallow doesn't make a summer. Unfortunately, however, anything which could go wrong with electoral process in Pakistan did go wrong. Not that political parties have almost perfectly honed the art of rigging from the very early stage of enumeration and preparation of electoral rolls and delimitation of constituencies to bogus polling, the officials deployed at polling stations too fail to come up to their task at hand. In this backdrop, the Transparency International's call that the Army should supervise the general election makes a lot of sense. Additionally, the TI in its communication to the CEC has also suggested that all 68,000 stations should be provided with cameras which according to its estimate would cost something like Rs 100 billion. May be it is not possible for the Election Commission of Pakistan to afford such a large number of cameras, but it would be worthwhile to equip sensitive polling stations with these critically important devices. In fact, equally challenging, if not more formidable, is the implementation of the commission's recently announced 'code of electoral conduct' which lays down a whole regime of do's and don'ts to ensure not only fairness of polls but also the long-felt need that an average Pakistani can, at least, contemplate contesting elections as expenditure involved in electioneering in order to get elected to country's legislative houses is no longer beyond has perhaps become affordable for him or her. Undoubtedly, the task to precipitate the national will through elections is not easy as one would wish. But with the appointment of former Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim as Chief Election Commissioner, that goal may not be utopian anymore. In him the people see a clear possibility of burying deep the long-exploited electoral system which had have invariably helped elite classes perpetuate their hold on national power - so much so that a latest opinion survey places Pakistanis as one of least pro-democracy nations. For the country to be secure it must enjoy the support of the general masses. No one would like to put his life on the line for a thing which is of no interest to him. Let Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim succeed in his 'only dream' and one-point agenda of holding free, fair and impartial election; his failure would be a national tragedy.
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