As the month long campaign for May 11 parliamentary polls is coming to an end on the midnight between Thursday and Friday, it has already taken the lives of some 102 people and will thus be remembered as the bloodiest electioneering in the country’s history. Tuesday was the worst day for workers of political parties because some 18 of them were killed and another 53 injured in three attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province most exposed to the militants. Unlike in the past, the target this time was also Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F which suffered these casualties near Hangu-Kohat Road. Five people were killed and 16 wounded when a roadside bomb hit the convoy of PPP activists at Maidan tehsil of district Lower Dir. A supporters of the candidate of a relatively little known party was killed and three activists sustained injuries in Baje town of Swabi district. On Wednesday, three people -- two women and a policeman -- were killed while 27 others, among them 10 women and children and nine policemen were injured as militants targeted Bannu’s Domail Police station with a car bomb.
If the account of the casualties is taken from the date when assemblies were dissolved, a horrible picture depicting an interregnum emerges. About 2,000 people were killed by with guns, by suicide attackers and bomb explosions, mostly conducted by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan who believe elections and democracy to be anti-Islam. This state of affairs is the gravest in characteristics because the Taliban are not even sparing their religious mentors - the JUI-F - who have came under their attack of late. The Taliban wrath started with targeting three mainstream progressive and liberal parties - the Pakistan People’s Party, the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement - which lost even their candidate in these attacks to countermand polling in those constituencies. These scathing assaults forced all the three parties to confine their election campaign. A leaderless party, the PPP, was the first to limit its campaign on April 4 when party chairperson Bilalwal Bhutto Zardari withdrew from speaking at the annual rally at Naudero, the burial place of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. Bilawal was scheduled to launch the party’s election campaign from this rally but he did not even participate in the meeting on Bhutto’s death anniversary because of security concerns. The PPP candidates have so far been holding corner meetings in their areas.
The same goes for the ANP whose president Asfandyar Wali, who used rallies in his area and that of several party candidates across the province and even in Karachi, has confined himself in a house in Islamabad from where he is running the campaign.
Likewise, former chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti and senior party leader Ghulam Mohammad Billour have also confined themselves to addressing corner meetings and going door-to-door seeking votes. But the MQM candidates has been exercising more restraints and are only driving their campaign by only door-to-door canvassing. The parties so far not targeted by the TTP include Nawas Shaif’s Muslim League and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf. Khan however, joined the list of injured candidates when he fell from a height of about 16 feet at a rally in Lahore on Tuesday. His head injury caused a scare among hundreds of thousands of the people who later wished him speedy recovery. Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has called for the implementation of integrated and well-coordinated security plan that the security forces have worked out for voting day in consultation with provinces and the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The Pak Army is deploying some 40,000 troops in addition to police and the Rangers; bringing up the security staff to about 134,000 across the country. Special deployment will be made to the volatile port city of Karachi. Besides, Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso last week decided to place the National Crises Management Cell, presently working under the Ministry of Interior, at the disposal of the ECP.
The elections this year, beyond doubt, pose the biggest challenge of our history for all at the helm of affairs. The election is vital for the transition of democracy to the next parliament and the way all the stake-holders have so far conducted themselves, withstanding all the pressure, merits a big word of praise for them. None of the parties to the election milieu, may they be political parties, their candidates and workers, the military establishment, the civil administration and the vast majority of the youthful electorate, have faltered in this gigantic task that ensures a much better future for the country. All of them joined hands for the all-important national task and this unity would certainly go a long way in realizing the dream of the people about a Pakistan free from all wants.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Pakistan: Bloodiest elections
As the month long campaign for May 11 parliamentary polls is coming to an end on the midnight between Thursday and Friday, it has already taken the lives of some 102 people and will thus be remembered as the bloodiest electioneering in the country’s history. Tuesday was the worst day for workers of political parties because some 18 of them were killed and another 53 injured in three attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province most exposed to the militants. Unlike in the past, the target this time was also Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F which suffered these casualties near Hangu-Kohat Road. Five people were killed and 16 wounded when a roadside bomb hit the convoy of PPP activists at Maidan tehsil of district Lower Dir. A supporters of the candidate of a relatively little known party was killed and three activists sustained injuries in Baje town of Swabi district. On Wednesday, three people -- two women and a policeman -- were killed while 27 others, among them 10 women and children and nine policemen were injured as militants targeted Bannu’s Domail Police station with a car bomb.
If the account of the casualties is taken from the date when assemblies were dissolved, a horrible picture depicting an interregnum emerges. About 2,000 people were killed by with guns, by suicide attackers and bomb explosions, mostly conducted by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan who believe elections and democracy to be anti-Islam. This state of affairs is the gravest in characteristics because the Taliban are not even sparing their religious mentors - the JUI-F - who have came under their attack of late. The Taliban wrath started with targeting three mainstream progressive and liberal parties - the Pakistan People’s Party, the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement - which lost even their candidate in these attacks to countermand polling in those constituencies. These scathing assaults forced all the three parties to confine their election campaign. A leaderless party, the PPP, was the first to limit its campaign on April 4 when party chairperson Bilalwal Bhutto Zardari withdrew from speaking at the annual rally at Naudero, the burial place of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. Bilawal was scheduled to launch the party’s election campaign from this rally but he did not even participate in the meeting on Bhutto’s death anniversary because of security concerns. The PPP candidates have so far been holding corner meetings in their areas.
The same goes for the ANP whose president Asfandyar Wali, who used rallies in his area and that of several party candidates across the province and even in Karachi, has confined himself in a house in Islamabad from where he is running the campaign.
Likewise, former chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti and senior party leader Ghulam Mohammad Billour have also confined themselves to addressing corner meetings and going door-to-door seeking votes. But the MQM candidates has been exercising more restraints and are only driving their campaign by only door-to-door canvassing. The parties so far not targeted by the TTP include Nawas Shaif’s Muslim League and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf. Khan however, joined the list of injured candidates when he fell from a height of about 16 feet at a rally in Lahore on Tuesday. His head injury caused a scare among hundreds of thousands of the people who later wished him speedy recovery. Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has called for the implementation of integrated and well-coordinated security plan that the security forces have worked out for voting day in consultation with provinces and the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The Pak Army is deploying some 40,000 troops in addition to police and the Rangers; bringing up the security staff to about 134,000 across the country. Special deployment will be made to the volatile port city of Karachi. Besides, Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso last week decided to place the National Crises Management Cell, presently working under the Ministry of Interior, at the disposal of the ECP.
The elections this year, beyond doubt, pose the biggest challenge of our history for all at the helm of affairs. The election is vital for the transition of democracy to the next parliament and the way all the stake-holders have so far conducted themselves, withstanding all the pressure, merits a big word of praise for them. None of the parties to the election milieu, may they be political parties, their candidates and workers, the military establishment, the civil administration and the vast majority of the youthful electorate, have faltered in this gigantic task that ensures a much better future for the country. All of them joined hands for the all-important national task and this unity would certainly go a long way in realizing the dream of the people about a Pakistan free from all wants.
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