Sowing uncertainty

As the country heads towards general elections in February, the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has thrown a spanner in the works by saying that it is difficult to carry out political activities in parts of KP and Balochistan due to the security situation. Now apparently this statement of the KP governor seems quite innocuous, but whenever such statements are made by constitutional figures, they create uncertainty, which is not good for the economic health of Pakistan.

A caretaker government is responsible for carrying out the day-to-day affairs of the country. But the basic structure of our constitution is still parliamentary, where the governor is just a titular head of the provincial government and also has nothing to do with the day-to-day affairs. If at all such a statement about a less than ideal law and order situation had to be made, it should have been made by the caretaker chief minister. Another reason why the governor should have refrained from making such a statement is the explicit desire conveyed by the chief justice to all stakeholders to refrain from giving statements which allude to the possibility of postponement of the elections.

Akbar Jan Marwat

Islamabad