Takeovers, not Caretakers

Most potently, there was overt, unconcealed collusion between GHQ, military intelligence agencies, the Presidency, and the parties and leaders who formed the Caretaker regimes. A glaring aspect of partiality and unfairness was the bizarre fact that Ministers of the Federal and Provincial Caretaker Governments were allowed to be candidates in the October 1990 elections. This gross discrimination provided the official candidates the advantage of obtaining free, daily coverage on PTV and PBC while Opposition candidates did not, for the most part, receive equitable coverage. Further, official candidates enjoyed the luxury of using State facilities of travel and other expenses during their election campaigns that could be covered under “official” duties of the Ministers, without straining their private pockets.

Transgressions of fairness:

Fortunately, in 2023, for better and for worse, the crudity and bias are more open to public exposure and a modicum of accountability due to proliferation of both electronic media and social media, as also to sections of the superior Judiciary. Yet conditions leading up to the mandated dissolution of the legislatures in August 2023 reflect both excess and imbalance. The instances are varied but all are disturbing. The firing on the PTI leaders and the injuries suffered. From the mysterious assassination in Kenya of the courageous journalist Arshad Sharif to the still-unresolved disappearance of journalist Imran Riaz Khan, who outspokenly advocated the PTI perspective to the incredible registration of a murder case against the PTI leader marooned in Lahore and Islamabad at the time of the incident, for the killing of a lawyer in Quetta (who had earlier filed a petition accusing the PTI leader of committing sedition), on the specious grounds that the PTI leader allegedly conspired and directed the murder from afar! The blackout by TV news channels of the name of the PTI leader and, on the other hand, daily, intensive, frequent doses of vitriol by Government Ministers against the previous Government. The curious, intriguing 9th May vandalisms have been used to literally add fuel to the anti-PTI fire --- an awkward yet apt metaphor. The clearly engineered resignations and desertions of many PTI leaders and the sponsored creation of new parties. The acquittals of the Sharifs from several NAB cases while the number of cases against Imran Khan crossed the 150 mark several weeks ago. And all this occurs while the about-to-be-deceased National Assembly passes new laws at express-train speed while only 30-odd members in a house of 342 members are present: with quorum deliberately not being called or enforced.

The post-1990 record offers sobering reading for the PDM Government of 2023. The alliance between President Ghulam Ishaq Khan/Armed Forces on one side, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the other, that began in November 1990 and broke in April 1993 portrays how pacts of convenience and contrivance are fragile and prone to being shattered. By April 1993, President Ishaq and Benazir Bhutto had joined hands to oust Nawaz Sharif! The victories of 2022 and, if they take place, of 2023, could be pyrrhic and transient. What seems solid today could turn unsettlingly liquid tomorrow. Or the day after: the variable factors are numerous and imponderable.

PTI’s successes & failures:

The PTI-led coalition Government of August 2018-April 2022 achieved some notable milestones: a globally acknowledged success in containing Covid-19, reviving exports and an economic momentum, initiating the 10-billion trees ecology-driven campaign, the success in mobilizing support at the UN to condemn Islamophobia, etc. Yet it also committed strange missteps and blunders. The choice of the Punjab CM, the refusal to engage in dialogue with Opposition parties and the prolonged absences of the PM from Parliament, the use of disparaging language against opponents and critics, the failure to reach out to rural Sindh in particular, and allow Balochistan to fester, the frequent changes of the Finance Minister, the inability to sustain a working relationship with the COAS (who also regularly overstepped into the civil, political domain, albeit, according to him, to support the Government --- that he, and his colleagues had helped attain power!), the stress on recreating the ideal state of Medina of the 7th century without acknowledging the phenomenally different objective conditions of the 21st century. Perhaps the worst of all decisions were the en masse resignations from the National Assembly and the dissolutions of the Punjab and KP assemblies.

Power to the people?

But none of the above justifies the persecution and the vilification unleashed in April 2022 and the persistent build-up --- echoed by most parts of conventional media heavily dependent on Government advertising --- through the months leading up to August 2023 . In a manner of speaking, even before the polls are held --- when?! --- and even before the Federal Caretaker Government takes charge, the scene has been distorted by the alliance of the past 16 months. The Caretaker Government must be authentically impartial, not an extension of the post-April 2022 arrangement: ECP should take a lead role in ensuring this neutrality.

All parties and leaders must be enabled to participate in the elections. All adult citizens have the inalienable right to cast their votes without pressure and threat --- even though the absurd first-past-the-post electoral system we use does not reflect holistic electoral reality. All voters possess the right to have their votes counted transparently and truthfully.
Let the people become the real Caretakers, and the true Takeovers.