The PTI might have realized that taking on the Election Commission Pakistan (ECP) is not exactly a wise strategy. The loss of its candidate to the PPP’s in the by-election on the Senate seat vacated when Faisal Vawda was disqualified should have brought home the lesson that ECP is not going to go according to the PTI’s wishes, but will do its best to conduct elections fairly. The PTI has been in hot water because of its clashes with the ECP, and it almost seems an inevitability that the ECP will find itself opposed to the PTI on virtually any issue, whether it be the ECP’s duty to supervise political parties, or the views on how elections are to be conducted.
The Vawda case is instructive. Mr Vawda was about to be unseated for having made a false declaration at the time of election to the National Assembly. Some bright spark thought that Mr Vawda could save himself if he went up to the Senate on a true declaration. The seat he gave up was won by the PPP. However, the ECP also unseated him from the Senate because of the original false declaration. Now the PPP has also won the Senate seat. Mr Vawda is not the only source of friction: the ECP has also raised queries about the PTI’s internal elections. The PTI’s attempt to hold elections had led to many disputes within the party, and the PTI’s solution, of keeping on postponing them, cannot be acceptable to the ECP for all that much longer. Then there is the foreign funding case. The PTI has legislated electronic voting at home and i-voting abroad, as well as permitting elected officials to campaign, but these are steps which the ECP sees problems with, as do all other parties.
The PTI must realise two things. First, the ECP is not acting arbitrarily, but merely according to the laws it must administer. The PTI must also remember that this is precisely why it must lose, because it is acting illegally, and the ECP is winning the legal battles.
