EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

New CEC

THE nomination of Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, a retired justice of the Supreme Court, has ended the months-long wrangling between the PPP and the PML-N over the appointment of the next chief election commissioner. This is welcome news at a time when the democratic project could certainly do with a boost. For a while it had appeared that egos were going to keep the two sides deadlocked on the appointment of a new CEC. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar in particular appeared determined to get his way, wanting one of his three nominees to get the nod from the parliamentary committee even if other qualified and non-controversial candidates were brought into the mix as a compromise. In the end, with a new prime minister in the saddle and the PPP facing uncertainty over his fate, the party acquiesced.

What remained was to convince a reluctant Mr Ebrahim to accept the CEC slot ahead of a general election. While health concerns will remain, the octogenarian Mr Ebrahim is certainly a man of integrity and forthrightness and under his watch the Election Commission of Pakistan could come closer to playing its rightful constitutional role in the holding of an election. While the challenges will be immense — free and fair elections, or at least freer and more fair than have been held to date, are rarely in the interests of the political class and the other powers that shape elections here — this is perhaps the right moment in Pakistan’s history to work towards making the electoral process more transparent and fair.

But the deal between the opposition and the government to elect a new CEC goes beyond the matter of elections. It is yet another sign that if given the time and space to work out their differences, politicians can and do deliver. That basic argument for the continuity of the system is often ignored in Pakistan and drowned out by the protests against governmental incompetence and parliamentary toothlessness. While criticism of the present government is all too real and meaningful, there have been notable achievements, particularly from the structural point of view. The 18th Amendment to give more power to the provinces and disempower the president’s office; the NFC that has given more resources to the provinces to deliver on an expanded range of responsibilities; the 20th Amendment that built on the 18th Amendment to give more autonomy to the ECP are some well-known examples. Now the biggest challenge is ahead: a legitimate general election conducted under the auspices of the civilians. They may just deliver, if given the time and space.

Gujrat attack

 MONDAY’S attack on soldiers in Gujrat was a stark reminder that home-grown militants still have the intention, and the means, to target security forces outside the tribal areas.The pace of such attacks has slowed down, and there have been no recent incidents on the scale of PNS Mehran or GHQ, so some progress against this threat has been made over the last couple of years. But the ease with which this most recent assault took place indicates that the danger persists and that the quality of preventive intelligence-gathering, and even of routine surveillance around a military presence, is still not where it needs to be.

Second, the incident was a reminder of the militant nexus connecting settled areas to Fata-based militancy. It is not entirely clear whether the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which has claimed responsibility, was involved directly, or if the attack was carried out by Punjab-based militants affiliated with it. But it is plain that Punjab is still vulnerable to violent extremism and anti-state activity that is made possible by links that stretch from Fata to the province.

What remains missing is official messaging that can inform Pakistanis about the real nature of this threat — that it is home-grown and focused on the destruction of the Pakistani state as it exists today. The view that such attacks are carried out by foreign hands, for example, or that they are justified because of Pakistan’s alliance with the United States, are alarmingly common. But each incident can also be used as an opportunity to fight these misperceptions. The concept of the so-called Punjabi Taliban still remains a murky one in terms of who is involved, who they are linked to, and what their aims are. And not all sensitive information about these groups can be shared publicly. But this is not a war that can be fought without citizens’ support, and some amount of disclosure about how these groups are weakening Pakistan could help build a national consensus against militancy and improve intelligence-gathering by making citizens responsive to suspicious activity in their communities.

Fizzling out?

CONTRARY to previous reports that the ‘long march’ of the Defence of Pakistan Council would not be allowed to enter Islamabad, the rally that included an outlawed organisation and some ‘banned’ leaders did manage to enter the capital on Monday and disperse peacefully. There was no violence along the rally’s 275-kilometre journey from Lahore to Islamabad, and the federal authorities allowed the convoy to D-Chowk opposite parliament because the two sides had come to an understanding. This peaceful conclusion of the rally on the basis of the ‘understanding’ was a pleasant surprise. Suddenly things begin to make sense, especially when Hafiz Saeed counsels peace. Since the Salala incident and the blocking of the Nato supply line, the DPC leadership had vowed never to allow supplies for the US-led Isaf forces in Afghanistan to be resumed. Often, DPC leaders had threatened to set the country on fire from Karachi to Khyber if trucks started rolling again along highways vulnerable to sabotage.

The blocking of Nato supplies and the subsequent resumption had parliamentary approval — both decisions having the backing of a military bruised as much by May 2 as by Nov 26. While the DPC’s enthusiastic support for the supply cut-off was in keeping with its militant opposition to America and to Islamabad’s perceived ‘slavery’ to Washington, its low-profile opposition to the resumption decision and the ‘understanding’ with the federal administration sound baffling, if not secretive. Evidently, those who inflated the balloon decided to prick it. The DPC’s anti-government rhetoric may still find a place in the media, but the zing is gone. The powers that be may revive the DPC under a new garb for the general election, and there may be new entrants, but for the present the DPC’s tacit approval of supply resumption has deprived it of its raison d’être.