Daily Times Editorial March 21, 2013

Inching forward The process of holding general elections is inching forward little by little. President Asif Zardari has declared May 11 as the date for the simultaneous elections to the National and provincial Assemblies. Unfortunately, the outgoing Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar were unable to agree on a consensus name for a caretaker prime minister. The decision therefore has now passed to the parliamentary committee composed of four members each from the government and opposition. Whereas the government has given representation to some of its coalition allies, and even made former Railways Minister and ANP leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour the convenor of the committee, the opposition has confined its choice of members to the PML-N alone, much to the chagrin of the recently migrated to the opposition benches MQM and JUI-F. In addition, if Chaudhry Nisar’s remarks reflect the mandate the PML-N has given its members on the committee, it seems that this forum too may not be able to come to any agreement. In that case of course, the decision will lie with the election commission. It would be a pity if the political forces were unable to take full advantage of the opportunity the constitution for the first time offers the polity to come together in a democratic spirit to decide on the caretaker prime minister. Unfortunately, partisanship seems to be at work to subvert the intent of the constitution to allow the political forces to take this historic decision. Nevertheless the situation is not beyond hope just yet, and in any case, if the politicians fail to agree, the process will and should be completed by the election commission. While at the Centre the process of agreeing on a consensus prime minister is still unresolved, in the provinces we appear to be further along the road. Three provincial Assemblies stand dissolved (Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan) while the fourth is on the verge (Punjab, where Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has reportedly moved the summary for dissolution of the Assembly to the Governor). In two provinces (Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) the caretaker chief ministers have been agreed and are on the verge of taking oath of office. In Balochistan, the complex interplay of pro- and anti-Aslam Raisani forces are jockeying for their candidate for chief minister. We are not there yet. Punjab too is still engaged (softly, softly, it must be said) in deciding the caretaker chief minister’s name. On the whole, the provinces are proceeding along the path of installing the arrangements for caretakers. The bottom line for the character of the caretakers, whether prime minister or chief ministers, should be that they are neutral, have no vested interests, and are people of integrity who will ensure they carry out their task fairly and without fear or favour. At the same time, they should confine themselves to their mandate of conducting fair, free and transparent elections and not exceed it to tinker with things beyond their purview. Were this to come to pass along these lines, Pakistan may well be poised on the cusp of a historic democratic transition from one set of elected governments to the next, with all the positive implications for consolidating the democratic system in a country bedevilled throughout its history by anti-democratic and anti-constitutional twists and turns.