Elections 2013: What is at stake?

Rab Nawaz

Sev­er­al fac­tors make the 2013 elec­tions his­toric — the first ever trans­fer of pow­er from one civil­ian gov­ern­ment to anoth­er, an inde­pen­dent elec­tion com­mis­sion, the mas­sive pop­u­lar­i­ty of new polit­i­cal pow­ers such as Pak­istan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, the youth fac­tor, the cru­cial role of tra­di­tion­al and social media — to name a few. As the elec­tion cam­paign gains momen­tum how­ev­er, sev­er­al con­tex­tu­al dynam­ics at play seem to have under­mined these pos­i­tive fac­tors.

In recent days cer­tain polit­i­cal par­ties, includ­ing the Awa­mi Nation­al Par­ty (ANP), Pak­istan Peo­ples Par­ty (PPP), and Mut­tahi­da Qau­mi Move­ment (MQM), who togeth­er con­sti­tut­ed the pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment, have been tar­get­ed by a spree of ter­ror­ist attacks. Hun­dreds of polit­i­cal work­ers, lead­ers and some elec­tion can­di­dates have been bru­tal­ly killed. Apart from the trag­ic loss itself, these events are pos­ing some seri­ous ques­tions on the cred­i­bil­i­ty of the elec­tions as a whole. If the vio­lence con­tin­ues, the tar­get­ed par­ties would cer­tain­ly not be com­pet­ing on a lev­el play­ing field. While gus­to and polit­i­cal antag­o­nism is part of the elec­tion cam­paign­ing process, a line must be drawn between enmi­ty and oppo­si­tion. Whether for tac­ti­cal rea­sons or for the alleged sym­pa­thy fac­tor, the TTP (who have claimed respon­si­bil­i­ty for these attacks) are not tar­get­ing oth­er par­ties.

Thus the forth­com­ing gov­ern­ment will not only have to face ques­tions of cred­i­bil­i­ty but will also have to tack­le the plague of mil­i­tan­cy in Pak­istan. The cur­rent silence of those who should be speak­ing up at this time will not only be a hin­drance towards tack­ling Tal­iban­iza­tion but will also be record­ed in his­to­ry as a dark stain for the present polit­i­cal lead­ers.

The essence of the demo­c­ra­t­ic process lies in bridg­ing ide­o­log­i­cal gaps and con­flicts of inter­est instead of embold­en­ing them. All the polit­i­cal par­ties, their sup­port­ers and con­cerned cit­i­zens must take this into account. While some issues are legit­i­mate­ly divi­sive, oth­ers must stand as uni­fy­ing forces, and ter­ror­ism is one of them. In the longer run, the suc­cess of the upcom­ing elec­tions and the incom­ing gov­ern­ment would be tak­en as a suc­cess of the polit­i­cal process, not just of any one polit­i­cal leader or par­ty.

(Pub­lished in The Laal­tain – April 2013 Issue)