PESHAWAR, May 5: It was not the law and order situation in the NWFP but a request from the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior, Mr Rehman Malik, to Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti to delay the polls, NWFP Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain said in a statement issued here on Monday evening.

“Rehman Malik, representative of the federal government, approached the NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and said that since the rest of the three provinces have agreed to postpone the bye-elections, the Frontier Province should also follow suit,” the minister said.

Mr Iftikhar said that it was at the request of Mr Malik that the chief minister said the NWFP would have no objection if the other provinces were willing to get the bye-polls delayed.

The minister’s statement was hardly surprising, but what did surprise many an analyst was the reason cited by the Election Commission of Pakistan for delaying the bye-polls for the third time.

The ECP first announced that bye-polls would be held on June 3, 2008 and later changed the date to June 18, claiming that political parties busy with national and provincial assemblies sessions needed more time to award election tickets to their candidates.

But the announcement by the ECP on Monday that the polling would now be held on August 13 “in view of the report received from the Home Secretary, Government of NWFP, regarding adverse law and order situation prevailing in that province…”, came as a surprise.

Facts speak otherwise. The law and order situation in the NWFP has improved tremendously and not deteriorated as the ECP would have us believe.

In fact, observers say, the law and order situation in the NWFP is now definitely far better than what it was, say on February 18, when the general elections were held-something the ANP-led government has been claiming credit for.

The situation then was precarious as the fear of suicide bombers lurking around discouraged many from coming out to vote, resulting in a low turnout.

The question, however, is: why would the NWFP government seek the postponement of bye-polls in one national and seven provincial assembly constituencies due to adverse law and order situation in the province?

Surprisingly, almost all the constituencies where the bye-elections are to be held are peaceful, except for Swat where although the situation is not normal, the government was nonetheless able to hold national elections on February 18.

The constituencies are; NA-11, Mardan-III, and seven provincial assembly seats: PF-20, Charsadda IV, PF-45, Abbottabad II, PF-75 Lakki Marwat II and PF-91, Upper Dir-1.

In addition, there are only three constituencies where elections could not be held on February 18 due to the death of candidates (and not because of law and order problems) and bye-elections were due to be held here. These are: PF-59 Battagram-1, PF-81 Swat-II and PF-92, Upper Dir-II.

It would be pertinent to mention that there have been only two serious incidents since February 18. The last and only suicide bombing in the NWFP occurred on March 17 in Swat, killing two policemen. Then a car bomb went off outside a police station in Mardan on April 25 militants claimed responsibility for the explosion and said it was to avenge the killing of one of their comrades by police. The ceasefire still holds, as far as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is concerned.

Significantly, however, while the NWFP government chose to issue a clarification blaming Rehman Malik for the confusion, it did not say why did it agree to cite law and order situation as the reason for seeking the postponement of the bye-elections.

“I signed the letter what I was authorised to sign,” was the short answer of the NWFP Home Secretary, Tepu Mahabat Khan, whose letter has been made the basis of the ECP decision.

Asked about the law and order in the province, a reluctant home secretary said “Alhamdolillah, so far it is very good.”

Speaking at a TV talk show, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, however, denied that his government had been “innocently” duped into issuing the ‘no-objection’ for the postponement. “We have contested elections under worse circumstances. Why should the ECP make the plea of just one province to postpone elections in the entire country?” he asked.