Rights Body Calls For Ending Uncertainty Around General Elections

ECP urged to promptly announce the election schedule to hold polls as "close" to the 90-day deadline as possible

Rights Body Calls For Ending Uncertainty Around General Elections

The constitutional and legal authorities responsible for holding general elections in the country were on Sunday urged to ensure that uncertainty surrounding the polls is immediately dispelled by announcing a date and schedule for the upcoming elections, apart from creating a conducive environment for elections and completing the peaceful transfer of power.

This was stated in a statement issued by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Sunday. The commission issued the statement after concluding a meeting of its governing council.

In the Sunday meeting, the council expressed immense concern over the uncertainty surrounding the general elections.

"HRCP insists that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announce an election schedule promptly such that polls are held as close as possible to the stipulated 90-day period," the statement said.

It added that the process of delimiting constituencies must also be completed quickly and efficiently and under no circumstances be used as an excuse to delay the elections any further. The ECP had earlier this week announced a new, earlier date to conclude the delimitation exercise, which it says it is bound to complete after the population census was published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The commission also expressed concerns over the scope for manipulating the electoral process by other state institutions, such as the National Database Regulatory Authority (NADRA).

HRCP urges the ECP to guard against this possibility.

The commission also expressed great alarm over the increasingly 'polarised environment', in which "religious and sectarian divisions are being exacerbated", reportedly to carve out artificial political space for far-right parties such as the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).

"The divisive and violent tactics used by such parties to build their political identities—particularly at the expense of religious minorities and sects — is eating into organic political and civic spaces," the statement added.

The commission also pointed to the continuing terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, noting that it has made political parties apprehensive about campaigning in the province — a pattern that has been witnessed in the past and one that the commission stressed that the government must ensure is not repeated.

"Apart from ensuring that free, fair and credible elections take place, the test of the current caretaker government is to see not only whether it will protect and respect people's right to protest peacefully but also whether it will respond to the issues that ordinary citizens are mobilising around," the commission noted.