Pakistan: Myth of free and fair elections

The belief that any elections held in Pakistan could ever be held in an entirely free and fair manner, according to the Western standards of democracy, is not only an utterly naïve notion but it also discards the harsh ground realities that form the basis of the political process in Pakistan.

The top leadership of the main political parties in concert with their partners in civil society, which ironically ignores the rural population when it comes to exclusively granting its membership to those belonging to the foreign funded NGOs, legal fraternity, private media outlets and students from elite universities, have all collectively fostered an obsession with transparent elections, a feat simply not achievable unless the literacy rate rises and the political awareness on the basis of party policies becomes the mainstream thought process of the nation.

The majority of population in Pakistan lives in the rural areas, where the local feudal powers with their affiliates within the local bureaucracy, judiciary and the police, retain a deep stranglehold on their livelihoods as well as their civil liberties. Here, the concept of freedom to choose a representative of their own, amounts to nothing but making a mockery of the democractic process.

The basic democratic human right of a person is his or her ability and the freedom to choose a candidate deemed to be the best representative in Parliament, someone who would be able to address the everyday issues. Such a right has sadly been taken away by the majority of the political parties whose candidates have nothing in common with the poor or the lower middle-class masses they claim to represent. Instead they happen to represent the elite ruling class of Pakistan and their interests, which almost always contradict the welfare of the ordinary citizens.

Similarly, the choice of voters is decided on the basis of factors beyond any political or sometimes sensible reasoning. There are several parts of the country where religious credentials of not the political parties but their election symbol becomes a factor in swaying the voters’ choice, or where votes are cast for the sake of a particular family name and quite often purely in favour of the candidates’ tribal or “biradari” trademark.

For those in the Western world, who wish to see the forthcoming elections conducted in a transparent and fair manner, it is vital to understand that unlike a one-day cricket match, the election is not a day and a half event where simply monitoring the polling and counting process is a measure of success or failure of the democratic process.

The elections should be viewed as a major milestone as part of a much wider and deeper political process, during which both the political parties and the establishment have an equal responsibility ensuring its success and the basis of democracy by creating a political climate of tolerance and awareness prior to the elections, where true representation is provided for the people of Pakistan, from within the urban and rural masses and bearing in mind the ground realities which we all tend to forget now and very often.