ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: Despite rumours swirling all around about an effort being made to get general elections postponed and extend the tenure of caretaker set-up, major political forces don’t see any such threat.

Such was the hype over the matter over the past week that the Supreme Court ordered the civilian and military bureaucracy on Thursday to thwart any such attempt and stay away from taking any step which might lead to deferment of the polls.

Talking to Dawn, Law Minister Farooq H. Naek said the president and prime minister were committed to holding the elections on time and he didn’t see anything which could “stop us from going ahead with timely polls”.

He said the 20th Amendment had put in black and white everything regarding transition from one government to the other.

“As long the system is in place, nobody should get worried about holding of the elections because no-one can go against the Constitution.”

The minister said the PPP had always fought for democracy and how could anyone deprive it of the credit of “completing the full five-year term and holding elections on time for the first time”.

However, the rumours don’t appear to be completely unfounded.

On Monday, Senator Raza Rabbani of the PPP expressed fears about postponement of elections and induction of a caretaker set-up for two to three years. But the veteran PPP lawmaker didn’t substantiate his statement. Then on Wednesday, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, in his opening remarks at a cabinet meeting, expressed similar apprehensions.

He said undemocratic forces were working against democracy and needed to be stopped by all political parties.

The main opposition parties also don’t see anything concrete in the rumours and accuse the PPP of having whipped up the threat to democracy just to hide its poor performance before the elections.

PTI spokesman Shafqat Mehmood said the PPP had taken the cover of saving democracy throughout the past five years. “Now when the general elections are round the corner, the PPP leaders have once again started to clamour that they are defending democracy against all odds. Frankly speaking, the PTI sees no evidence of whatsoever nature that can cause a delay in the elections and PPP’s leaders, by talking about such dangers, are just trying to create a storm in a teacup.”

More or less similar views were expressed by PML-N deputy information secretary Khurram Dastagir. He said it was only PPP leaders who were talking about derailment of democracy, without giving any reason.

However, Mr Dastagir argued that since it was the first time in the history of the country that a truly democratic transition was going to take place, some quarters in the establishment were deliberately fanning such fears.

In the past, some political forces had always played into the hands of the establishment. “This time, I strongly believe, democracy is here to stay forever,” Mr Dastagir said.