EDITORIAL: On the ticklish question of elections, it is heartening to note that the government and PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) teams have walked some distance hand in hand, but the destination for them to reach remains too distant; and it is hidden by haze of uncertainty.
Their third and decided to be the final round on the timelines for general elections ended late Tuesday night without a joint statement. Both sides informed the media about their positions on the outcome of the talks, claiming that the only point they jointly agreed upon is that the elections should be held on the same day under a caretaker government.
That they also agreed that the elections when held should be fair, free and impartial and their outcome should be accepted as such is nothing but a trite claim made at the end of three-sitting interlocution.
Since these talks were an option to escape the Supreme Court-mandated May 14 deadline for Punjab Assembly election the outcome of the Government-PTI talks was submitted to the court in the form of a report on the negotiation.
As to what would follow there is no clarity to it. All three actors in this electoral play – apex court, government and PTI – may preserve in the positions they have already taken and let the imbroglio live or die on its own. Will there be intervention by the powers that be as was the case in the past? This question does not have an easy answer, so to speak.
That elections will be held on same day is no longer news as the concerned financial quarters are on record having stated that holding elections on different dates will not be possible in view of more than precarious state of country’s economy. And the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been repeatedly told that given a grim security situation in the country it would be problematic to provide security cover to the entire polling process in case it is not in one go.
Insofar as the caretaker government cover for elections is concerned, it is strictly a constitutional dictate or requirement; it is not a “breakthrough” as such. But what the talks failed to arrive at is the date the general elections should be held.
According to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who led the government team at the three-day interlocution, there was no agreement on the date for these elections, and his argument stems from his perception that not only should the elections be held after the passage of the federal budget, the government should await the outcome of the IMF’s ninth review. The leader of the PTI team, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was equally unsure about the future of general elections.
He did offer to return to the National Assembly to help the government legislate election beyond 90-day restriction and also announced the PTI would submit the report of negotiations to the Supreme Court. But nothing more to help one know when will the nation go for general elections.
In a way, as aptly concluded by the Business Recorder, the Government-PTI talks ended in stalemate. Simply stated, the government conceded nothing and, in a way, asked the PTI leadership to revisit its stand that Punjab elections should be held on May 14.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023