Pakistan Elections to Be Held on Feb. 8 Despite Senate Resolution

Facts

• Pakistan's electoral commission (ECP) declared on Saturday that the upcoming general elections will be held as planned on Feb. 8, citing its constitutional mandate to conduct timely and transparent elections.¹
• This comes a day after the country's Senate approved, 13 to 1, a non-binding resolution to delay the vote due to the cold weather and security concerns, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, at a session that was skipped by the vast majority of senators.²
• In response to that motion, Sen. Mushtaq Ahmed Khan of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party submitted a 'counter resolution' in the Senate on Saturday to declare the election delay proposal void and unconstitutional. He further claimed that the caretaker government and 'undemocratic forces' were trying to 'flee from the elections.'³
• Meanwhile, prominent lawyer Ishtiaq Ahmed has filed an application for contempt of court proceedings in the Supreme Court against the Senate chairman and the lawmakers involved in the attempt to postpone the vote.⁴
• Per constitutional requirements, the Pakistani general elections are already delayed as they should have been held by mid-November — within 90 days after parliament completed its five-year term in August. The delay was a result of a row between the ECP and the presidential office that saw both branches claim the right to call the election. The Feb. 8 date was set after the Supreme Court stepped in.⁵
• Also on Saturday, an appellate tribunal in Multan rejected nomination papers filed by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the senior vice chairman for former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), for two national and two provincial assembly constituencies. Yet, his papers from NA-214 Umerkot in Sindh have been accepted.⁶

Sources: ¹Pakistan Today, ²Al Jazeera, ³Arab News, ⁴The Express Tribune, ⁵Voice of America and ⁶The Friday Times.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Economist. If they ever take place — and this delay proposal has been just the latest indication that the public may be right to be skeptical about a timely election— the upcoming Pakistani elections will be anything but free and fair. First and foremost, the country has been ruled by an illegitimate caretaker government. Moreover, the ECP has denied the PTI its rights to nominate first-choice candidates as well as to campaign.
• Narrative B, as provided by DAWN.COM. While the nonsensical resolution to postpone the polls with little more than a month in advance prompted concerns about democracy in Pakistan, the fact that even the Pakistan Muslim League (N) Party has forcefully opposed any further delays indicates that the electoral process will move forward. In light of the unyielding determination of the Supreme Court to hold elections on Feb. 8, one has no reason to doubt that this will happen.

Predictions