THE PRE-POLL "DHANDHLA"

Once again MQM had to face a loss of one more office bearer in Karachi. Previously, 16 lives of ANP`s supporters and workers were targeted in its home town KPK, but, luckily, God saved the 2^nd “Bilor” in the suicide attack. To tell the truth, this is the not the first and unexpected attacks for ANP and MQM, PPP is also under the similar danger.

After the election process started, MQM, ANP and PPP started facing these attacks by same banned outfit. In fact, all these terrorist attacks were in the compliance with the announcement made by the TTP that they would attack PPP, ANP and MQM in the upcoming elections. It also warned the common people of Pakistan to keep off the political gatherings of the said parties during the election campaigns.

As a consequent of these threats and the resulting bloody attacks, the leaderships of these parties have quite hesitant for initiating their political campaigns. This is one of the most important reasons why the political activities seem to have been suspended in KPK, Sind and Baluchistan. The thing is, will it be fair not to allow these parties actively participate in the upcoming elections by force? Is it not the primarily responsibility of the Election Commission, Supreme Court and military establishment to provide a leveled field to these parties?

It is interesting to notice that on one side TTP announced to target MQM, ANP and PPP, but on the hand, it expressed its trust on the leaderships of the PML-N, Jamat-e-Islami, Jamiate-Ulma-e-Islam-F, and PTI. It also nominated them as their guarantors in the probable dialogue with the government of Pakistan.

The question is, does it not clearly show the relationship between a banned outfit and the right wing parties? Should the parties for which an anti-Pakistan terrorist group has this sort of trust, be considered as patriotic? Taking into account all this, is it difficult to infer that who will be the beneficiary of the TTP attacks on ANP, MQM and PPP in the upcoming elections? Then, why are the SC and the EC not taking any notice of this pre-poll” Dhandhla”? Why are they so silent on this extremely important issue? Why have they kept their eyes closed on it? If the prevailing state of fear and attacks on the left-wing parties continue, will the upcoming elections 2013 deserve to be called free and fair?

We are fully aware that PML-N, JI, JUI-F and PTI have been charging MQM, ANP and PPP of operating the militant wings, but these parties have been strictly condemning this severe charge by their rivals. Regardless of whether this charge has any ground or not, but if all these so-called militant wings announce to target PML-N, JI, JUI-F and PTI during the election campaigns and warn the common people to avoid participating in the political gatherings, and they also start attacking them in the same way like TTP, will there be similar silence from all over the country? Will the CJP, Chief election Commission and the COAF keep their lips closed in such a situation? I do not think so.

Moreover, when the Supreme Court can keep pressurizing the Law-enforcement Agencies to remove the No-go areas from Karachi, then why does it not give the similar deadlines to the Pakistan Army to eliminate the TTP from the country so that not only the general people of Pakistan can be saved, but also the under-attack anti-Taliban parties can freely participate in the elections? Unfortunately, there are no required steps being taken from it.

When it is the matter of deriving more and more powers and authorities, the CJP Mr. Iftekhar Choudhry goes on referring to the Article 9 of the Constitution that requires the judiciary to ensure the protection of the fundamental rights of the people. The question is, are the fundamental rights of the people not being openly violated through the TTP attacks on the people-supported parties? Will the responsibility of this violation not lie on the shoulders of the CJP? Does the Article 9 only state the powers for the CJP? Does it not speak anything about the responsibility of the judges who fail to comply with it?

In essence, it is the need of the time that all the relevant Institutions and their heads must ensure the fearless participation of the badly affected parties in the upcoming elections by providing the fool-proof protection to their leaderships, workers and supporters at the earliest if they really want the elections to be called free, fair and transparent. Otherwise, not only the exercise of the elections would altogether fail, but also especially the Election Commission, Supreme Court and the Military establishment would be called as a collaborators of the intrigue against the right-wing parties.