Countdown to Pak Polls - I: Will historic Pak election be its road to paradise?

The road to 11 May election in Pakistan is increasingly getting bumpy. With just two days to go before polls, an embattled Election Commission of Pakistan is finding it increasingly difficult to control poll-related violence. According to an estimate, since April the Pakistani Taliban have killed more than 70 people in attacks targeting three major political parties – Awami National Party, Pakistan People’s Party and Mutahhida Quami Movement - preventing many of their most prominent candidates from even campaigning openly.

Law and order issues has ignited rumours that election would be called-off but despite this supporters of democracy in Pakistan are keeping their fingers crossed hoping for conclusion of a fair election though not as peaceful. The Election Commission of Pakistan has been able to survive the storm till now. Interestingly, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Tuesday stressed the need for implementing an integrated and well-coordinated security plan to ensure peaceful elections across the country, especially Karachi. Under the plan, 124,000 security personnel, including 20,000 troops, had been deployed in assigned areas in the Sindh province with 49,000 personnel — 39,000 police and Rangers and 10,000 army troops —in Karachi only. This visible involvement from the Army to ensure ‘peaceful voting’ could cut both ways. Judiciary too is as of now watching the conduct of polls with hawk eyes.

Politically, the equation seems to have shifted marginally with PPP popularity declining even further in the past month. Corruption, bad governance and their inability to stop breeding of Pakistan Taliban in the country has angered the people who are witnessing acts of terrorism every day. On the other hand, Nawaz Shariff’s Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz is turning out to be the beneficiary. The accidental fall of Pakistan Teherik -e-Insaf preident Imran Khan during a rally in Lahore on Monday, for a brief moment, brought back memories of Benazir Bhutto assassination. But reports that he escaped with few injuries provided relief to his fans.

There is no doubt that Pakistan is inching towards making history with fundamentalists leaving no stone unturned to disrupt the proceedings. 

As Ayesha Siddiqui, a renowned Pakistani author argued in her recent article, ‘The general elections seem to be going according to schedule despite continued rumours that these might be postponed. Although people seem to be questioning political parties and a new change is expected, one wonders if any major shift will be made considering the absence of structural changes.’