KP govt failed to maintain law and order during LG polls: Sethi

LAHORE: Expressing his concern over LG polls-related violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, senior analyst Najam Sethi said the law and order situation wasn’t in control of the provincial government.
He said the unprecedented violence was a stain on the ECP and the KP government, as he talked about several deaths and injuries to dozens of people during Geo News programme ‘Aapas Ki Baat’ on Saturday.
Sethi said the polling staff was not trained and the political parties were holding the ECP responsible for the situation but did not accept their responsibility. There was a democratic, not caretaker, government in the province but the manner in which elections were held was deplorable, he added. He said instead of shifting the blame, the ECP and the KP government should have taken steps jointly.
On CM Pervaiz Khattak’s statement that his government did not interfere and the complainants, if any, should move election tribunal, Sethi said the PTI had accused the Punjab government of rigging in general elections and him (Sethi) of “35 punctures”. The PTI had not mentioned the ECP at that time, he said, adding that the then caretaker Punjab government was responsible for law and order and had taken measures as per the ECP directives. Sethi reminded that there was no violence in Punjab at a time when there was a caretaker setup, unlike the present-day democratic government in KP. Maintaining law and order was a duty of the KP government which could even call in the army, he added. According to Sethi, the PTI brought the local government law but was now saying that there were so many candidates. Did they not know it was tough job? They could have filed a petition against the ECP but didn’t. They made legislation tailored to them and wanted polls under it, the consequences of which are now visible. The same would happen in Punjab, when polls are held there, as the chief minister will never empower the local governments.
Sethi said the sectarian groups claimed responsibility for the attacks on Shia population while the Baloch for targeting Punjabis, state institutions or energy infrastructure, but the people killed in Mastung carnage were neither Punjabis nor Shia. He said the home minister mentioned the Indian spy agencies’ role while the opposition leader in Balochistan stated that it was an attempt to trigger Baloch-Pakhtun conflict. Therefore, he said, there could be a foreign hand.
Sethi said there was no need to summon an APC on taking action against the Baloch separatists and it was meant to press that the sectarian groups and religious extremists should also be targeted. The army required a Karachi and Fata-like legal protection for operation in Balochistan, he added.
About the supplementary report of Nadra on NA-122, he said 5,919 out of 6,123 votes earlier declared as unverified had been verified by matching the thumb impression and CNIC number. It meant only 204 votes were not verified and had also proved the baseless nature of Imran Khan’s claims, he added.