Election deadlock

Talks between the coalition government and the PTI started with a bang, proceeded without much event, and seem to have ended rather anti-climatically – without any significant breakthrough on election dates. The original stalemate was on the issue of dissolution of assemblies and the date of the elections. Both sides did agree on holding elections across the country on the same day, something that would need a constitutional amendment. The PTI is ready to come back to the National Assembly for a one-time constitutional amendment to hold elections on the same day. So then where lies the issue? Once again, we are back to square one: the date for the election – a single electoral exercise or just provincial elections, the deadlock is in the date. Now, the PTI has submitted a report to the Supreme Court regarding the negotiations and has once again requested the SC to ensure implementation on its order to hold elections to the Punjab Assembly on May 14.

Some observers are still hopeful that at least the two sides agreed on holding the elections on the same day and the only issue is about election dates, which they say can be resolved through another dialogue. Others say that these talks took place only because the SC had asked for a dialogue between the two sides and now that this condition has been met, the ball is back in the court. There is also a thinking that, from the position of ‘everything to lose’, the PDM government is now in a position of ‘nothing to lose’ – because the apex court has over-stretched itself on the issue of political cases, especially its focus on the Punjab elections.

When the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies were dissolved by the PTI, the coalition government was evidently worried it may lose elections in both provinces if held in 90 days and that this would also affect the results of the general elections at the centre, which would go in the PTI’s favour. But after the suo-motu notice – and we have seen the controversy that has led to – it may well be that the government feels it is on some surer footing that it will hold elections across the country on the same day despite court orders about the Punjab elections.

Much of the controversy around the election issue has come from the perception that the apex court has chosen to not consider how fellow judges have stood by the 4:3 decision of dismissing this suo motu. The rest of the controversy comes from the nagging feeling that Punjab elections somehow trump KP elections – since both the PTI and the court seem somehow less interested in the latter elections. To some, this in itself undermines the constitutional requirements of holding elections in 90 days. In all this, the credibility of many institutions has taken a hit, with the nation watching the ‘clash’ between the superior judiciary of Pakistan and the executive, parliament, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and fellow judges. In the midst of this unravelling of a system, there are optimists who feel that perhaps the PTI and even the judiciary have realized that under these circumstances, it would be nearly impossible to implement the court’s decision and thus a middle ground is needed to sort out the constitutional crisis. As we wait for this unending election question to be finally resolved, maybe it is time to take a pause? For the political parties to pause and ask themselves just what they are trying to achieve here. Not much will be left to rule over if Pakistan continues the way it is right now. For the court too to pause and take stock of what the justice system must seem like to any lay person in the country. With the ECP asking the SC to review its decision as it cannot give election dates, it is important that institutional and political stakeholders in the country learn to talk to each other instead of actively engaging in measures that could take down the entire democratic system.