The President and the Election Commission of Pakistan, have been corresponding, acrimoniously by bureaucratic standards, over an issue that concerns them only tangentially: why the Punjab and KP Governors did not give a date for fresh elections when their respective assemblies were dissolved a month ago. It should be noted that President Arif Alvi is behaving, not as the neutral head of state he is supposed to be, but as a stalwart of the PTI, whose secretary general he was before being elected to his present office. The PTI wants, and President Alvi appears to want with it, the provincial assemblies to hold elections not so much because they are a constitutional mandate, but because that can be used to apply pressure for the acceptance of its demand for fresh federal elections. The ECP on the other hand, apart from being faced with such difficulties as the lack of returning officers, money or security, says that it does not determine the date of an election for an assembly that is dissolved prematurely. The Punjab Governor argues that he didn’t dissolve the Assembly, which was dissolved automatically after advice for dissolution was tendered by the CM. The way matters stand, the Governor is going to court again to get a clarification on the Lahore High Court’s original ruling that ordered him to set a date for elections after consulting with the ECP. The ECP itself is preparing to go into appeal before the original decision. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is readying itself to take up the matter suo motu, creating the possibility of the intra-court appeals by the Governor and the ECP being taken up by the Supreme Court.
Once again, the nation is left to the spectacle of politicians taking essentially political matters to the courts for settlement, which is probably inevitable when partisan ill-will prevents them from sitting down and talking to one another, and seeking a solution through dialogue. The question of provincial assembly election dates has seemingly ballooned from a minor glitch into a huge obstacle.
It should not be ignored that even if the PTI manages to emerge victorious, and gets a date from the judiciary for the provincial elections. It is also perhaps not the right time for politicians to abdicate their own responsibility to the judiciary, which itself is roiled by the controversy created audio-clips purportedly showing a politician talking to a judge.
