Security steps ensure transparent, fair election

ISLAMABAD
Different watertight measures including installation of cameras in the polling stations of the National Assembly constituency NA-246 Azizabad Karachi have raised a legitimate hope that the April 23 by-election will be most fair, free and transparent for the first time in decades.
The expected impartial poll will obviously exhibit the real electoral strength of every contesting political party. The complaints aired by any one of them about the by-election after its conclusion will not be plausible and logical as elaborate steps have been put in place to ensure that the exercise is above board and every player gets a fair chance to show its popularity.
The Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have often asserted that they have not been allowed a level playing field in the past. They have mainly been holding the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) responsible for their defeat. However, the MQM stresses that its successive electoral victory has been reflective of its genuine appeal.
The PTI has been in the forefront in making different demands including deployment of army troops, introduction of biometric system etc., in NA-246.
However, the military has not been involved while Sindh Rangers has been given the duty of making sure that the exercise is not hijacked by any political party with the use of force. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) turned down the demand for biometric system terming it unfeasible.
There have been widespread complaints, accusations and allegations that elections in Karachi have always been a one-sided affair due to intimidation and coercion by the MQM. Several political parties, having not much say, have leveled charges of massive ballot stuffing and manipulation. They have claimed that they were always stopped from getting their due share due to use of force.
While installing the cameras, steps have been taken that secrecy of ballot is not encroached upon as election laws disallow disclosure of the choice of voters. The ECP emphasised this point.
Battle lines are clearly drawn among three principal contenders - MQM’s Kanwar Navid Jamil, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Rashid Nasim and PTI’s Imran Ismail. They have also earned backing of different parties, which have not fielded their own nominees in the fight.
The Ahle Hadith Council has committed to vote for the MQM, Majlis-e-Wahdat Muslimeen has announced support to the PTI while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulemae Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) will back the Jamaat-e-Islami.
The clash had the potential of becoming menacing for the MQM if the PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami, the two allies in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) ruling coalition, would have joined hands. Their obsession to assert themselves independently in NA-246 is music to the MQM ears. They are apparently fighting for second position unless some upset happens.
The outcome of the contest will display certain political realities. After the 1992 military operation before which Altaf Hussain left Pakistan for Britain and is there since then, the MQM is under immense pressure for a variety of happenings.
The recovery of hardened criminals from its headquarters Nine Zero during the Rangers raid, confessions of the accused, admitting many heinous crimes, arrested from there, and startling video statement of death row prisoner Saulat Mirza rocked the MQM and pushed it to a place where it has hardly been earlier.
While contesting in this environment, the result of the by-poll will reveal the real strength of the MQM as it is no more be enjoying full backing of the establishment or the provincial government. Successive elections in Karachi have been an easy, smooth affair for it. It has never been so much worried or campaigned hard as it has now.
If it lost, the previous allegations that it has been winning polls through ballot stuffing and other illegal means will hold ground. If it won against the prevailing heavy odds, its popularity would be further stamped.
However, the MQM faces the challenge of touching its 137,874 votes that it secured in the 2013 elections from this constituency. Its representative had gained even more, 186,933 ballots in the 2008 polls.
The performance of the PTI nominee will unveil the impact of its protracted protest sit-in and politics of agitation. Its claim of having become very popular will be tested. In 2013, its cardholder had bagged 31,875 votes.
The Jamaat-e-Islami, which has consistently complained that its mandate had been stolen for decades in Karachi, is struggling to regain its lost glory. It is now in no position to air such grievances.
Since it is just one by-election, it has been easy for the law enforcement agencies, ECP and Sindh government to make foolproof arrangements.
However, it becomes quite difficult to take such comprehensive measures at the large scale all over Pakistan.