The consultation between President Arif Alvi and the Election Commission of Pakistan has yielded an election date, that of May 9, for the Punjab Assembly, and a date for the KP Assembly should follow soon. The date has come after the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the issue, which started because the Punjab Governor did not give an election date, as he had not dissolved the Assembly, Now that a date has been given, there has begun a series of challenges for the stakeholders. First of all, the ECP has to ensure that peaceful, and free and fair, polls are held. At the moment, it lacks not just money, for which it depends on the federal government, but also security staff, which has already been refused it by the concerned federal ministries, as well as Returning Officers, with the Lahore High Court having already refused to lend its lower judiciary. The ROs must be appointed at once, because candidates will have no one to file nominations with. The fallback position, that of choosing as ROs provincial government officers, may not be acceptable to the political parties, especially the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf, which views the Punjab caretaker government with deep suspicion.
The main challenge for the parties, which will actually contest the election, will be to run effective campaigns, and for this they will have to manage proper awards of tickets. It has been a perennial complaint with all parties that tickets are not rightly awarded. The parties have also got to campaign at least initially in Ramazan, and in an atmosphere vitiated by terrorism. While the parties need pre-poll security to hold rallies and other election gatherings, the caretaker governments also will be responsible for ensuring a smooth campaign as well as a peaceful poll. Ll stakeholders also will have to deal with the census just started, with its initial results likely to be available by polling day.
The provincial governments and the ECP must also ensure that there is no further slippage from the 90-day limit set by the Constitution. In the case of Punjab, there has already been a three-week slippage. That should not be exceeded any further. There are certainly challenges ahead, but the ECP, the provincial governments and the political parties, will have to overcome then. And that requires cooperation.
