Pakistan's Presidential Election: Throwing out the baby with the bathwater

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), along with the Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-A), has boycotted the presidential election to be held on July 30th. Now the contest will be between Mamnoon Hussain and PTI’s Justice (Retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed. Senator Raza Rabbani, the PPP presidential candidate, has shown disgruntlement at the attitude of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and at the manner the Supreme Court (SC) has dealt with the entire issue surrounding the date for conducting the presidential election, which he says smacks of partiality. During his press conference the senator flailed the ECP for dispensing with its independence that has been restored after much effort by the previous government through the 18th and 20th amendment. He argued that there was no point in the ECP resorting to the SC for guidance on the issue of setting a new date for the presidential election. He went as far as suggesting that perhaps the ECP was persuaded by the PML-N’s cue to knock at the SC’s door. This unwanted crisis surrounding the presidential election is going to have far reaching consequences, as the boycotting parties have already refused to acknowledge any president winning through this flawed process. The SC is considered mainly responsible for bringing the crisis to this level. One, it should not perhaps have interfered unless there was some constitutional deadlock, which obviously there was not. Two, why were all the stakeholders not taken on board before passing the order? What was the haste for? Had a simple step of hearing the other presidential candidates been taken by the SC, things would not have come to this pass. On the other hand, the ECP has failed to live up to expectations. Did the ECP not foresee the timing of the presidential election in order to prepare for it? Did it not know that the election was falling in Ramzan and that too during the last ten days, when a lot of people are engaged in religious obligations? Then, when the problem cropped up, the ECP began looking here and there for support. Such attitudes take away trust from institutions, already on the wane in Pakistan. There is no gainsaying the fact that it is the PML-N that will likely win the presidential race. However, for the sake of a credible and acceptable political process, the right of every hopeful to canvass for electoral success cannot be denied. Reaching out to their electoral college, i.e. parliament and the four provincial assemblies, required time and effort, which obviously had not been considered in the decision given by the SC. A much bigger issue requiring attention is about the pattern of religiosity that we have woven about ourselves. Why should Ramzan become a hindrance to the accomplishment of our everyday duties and responsibilities, especially a task that comprises carrying out constitutional obligations? Taking a cue from the life of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), who had even fought wars during Ramzan, the famous battle of Badar being one of them, this quandary should have been solved without controversy. But then we have our own perceptions even about following religion that make things unnecessarily complicated. It is about time that the SC in its role as the interpreter of the constitution gives each institution the space and the right to function without unnecessary intervention. The impression that an august institution such as the SC ends up throwing the baby out with the bathwater only serves to diminish its status and prestige, won after a long and persistent struggle.