OUR decision-makers are still undecided on whether the time is ‘right’ for a general election. In a Tuesday forum organised by Pildat in Islamabad, the law minister, Azam Nazeer Tarar, found himself unable to commit to elections in either October or November, expressing, instead, ‘hope’ that the country could go to polls soon.

Separately, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, speaking to journalists in Lahore, kicked the ball over to the Election Commission, saying only it could give a date for elections once the government had completed its tenure in August.

PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had earlier declared that elections would be held whenever he decides they are to be held, while JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman had made the polls seem subject to the collective will of the ruling PDM coalition.

In this confusion over who is actually calling the shots, whatever the Constitution says about the election timeline seems to be of little consequence to any of the parties involved. Another factor complicating matters is the untouchable power that has taken over the wheels of the political omnibus from the current dispensation.

The citizenry has largely been silent spectators over the past year as the country has been steered further and further away from its constitutionally defined order. The provision for elections to dissolved assemblies in 90 days was subtly subverted without as much as a fine being imposed. Now, a workaround is being deliberated that may help avoid the promised elections in October.

In this respect, the powers that be have been debating the imposition of what can only be described as a ‘planned’ emergency, till such time as the political environment becomes ‘viable’ for general elections again. The manner in which this subversion of the democratic process is being planned should cause alarm to anyone who has the country’s best interests at heart.

It is unfortunate that, despite the repeated and spectacular failures of past experiments in political engineering, not one of the institutions tasked with upholding the constitutional order has stood its ground and insisted on going by the book for once. Instead, the legislature is now hand in glove with forces ripping the law to shreds, the Supreme Court seems powerless and unable to assert its authority, and, taking advantage of this, the shadow state is doing whatever it pleases.

How long must the people of this country be made to suffer in silence? How much more ink needs to be spilt before the powerful see reason and understand that the country cannot move forward till its people have the power to decide their fate themselves? The state must fulfil its obligation to hold free and fair elections on time. Refusal to do so only spells more disaster for the months and years ahead.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2023