The summary dismissal of Nadra chief Tariq Malik and his equally prompt reinstatement - all of it just in one day, amply suggest that while the country's political elite remains stuck in the groove of dirty politics, others have much changed for the better. That somebody holding a statutory position should be shown the door in utter disregard of rules and regulations is certainly not expected of those whose electoral promise was a 'new dawn' when rule of law would prevail. That was not to be. Hardly six months into power that dawn is neither here nor there. The winner of the day, PML-N, refuses to be anything different from what it was in the past - riding roughshod over all that was neither to its liking then, nor now. No warning, no explanation, no show-cause notice, no hearing - he was sacked through a three-line midnight notification as he learnt of his dismissal from the media. By the time he reached Islamabad his chair was occupied by one of his juniors. However, it's not that he was completely in the dark about what awaited him. He was receiving threats to behave - some of it delivered to him in person by a bigwig in Lahore. What sort of 'behaviour' on his part was expected, he was being asked not to expose what looks like massive rigging in election to five provincial and national constituencies of Lahore, all won by the PML-N candidates. It was not that he was on it on his own; an Election Tribunal had asked him to verify the thumb imprints on the ballots cast at the polling for NA-118 won by the PML-N's Riaz Hussain Malik. The Nadra chief was yet to give his findings, but the riggers of votes feared the truth in the matter, and were determined to win him over by hook or by crook. Tariq Malik lost his job, but he knew he was right, a standpoint vindicated by the Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi who restored him to his position with immediate effect by suspending the notification. The relief provided to Tariq Malik is in line with the superior judiciary's constitutional powers to ensure that the government's administrative decisions are not in violation of rules and regulations.
The May 11 elections were declared as more free, fair and transparent than ever held before in Pakistan. But that doesn't seem to be the case given the resistance being offered by the parties in power to the election tribunals that are tasked to hear and decide complaints of alleged rigging in certain constituencies. Nadra comes in when a tribunal wants it to verify if the thumb impression on the ballot paper is of the same person whose vote was cast. According to media reports, Nadra had found quite big chunk of votes cast for the PML-N candidates were bogus as the thumb imprints on the ballot papers didn't match with those with it. So the powers-that-be in Lahore wanted Tariq Malik to withhold the facts, if he couldn't change them. He refused pointblank, earning the ire of the party's top leadership. This indeed is a very frustrating situation and may vitiate atmosphere for the local bodies' election. Even more frustrating is the kind of attitude of the PML-N that was expected to act as a role model having won democratic right to rule the country for five years. But if this is how it won the May 11 election and came to power then not only it is a clear loser in the eyes of the public but the democratic process is equally a bad loser in Pakistan. Of course, the Election Commission of Pakistan is expected to look into this opprobrious development, mainly by standing by the position taken by Tariq Malik. But more than the ECP, it is for leadership of the PML-N to come clean on it. The time and the age when riding roughshod over functionaries in other institutions for enforcing its dictate possible for the political governments have passed. The PML-N too should move out of that grove of highhanded governance; the alternative would further speed up its downhill slide that is so much in evidence all-around.
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