Amid threats of an internet shutdown, Pakistan’s general elections are approaching, raising questions about electoral transparency

Syed Umer Gardezi

ISLAMABAD: General elections in Pakistan are being held on February 8 after a long constitutional crisis. Currently, on one hand, all the major political parties of Pakistan are running their election campaigns, but on the other hand, retaliatory actions are also being taken against Pakistan and the world’s most popular party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government was unconstitutionally overthrown, after which his workers were pelted with bullets for peacefully protesting, women were desecrated, and Imran Khan was humiliated as a terrorist. He was arrested, more than two hundred false cases were made against him and he was kept away from politics and the election symbol was also taken away from Tehreek-e-Insaf, but Imran Khan’s party continued to set a record of popularity. Now that the general elections are being held a day later, the powerful circles have come to know that it has become impossible to defeat Imran Khan’s independent candidates, so there is a growing fear of major rigging in Pakistan. Internet service will be suspended on any pretext so that Tehreek-e-Insaf voters remain unaware of the facts and a conspiracy can be hatched to defeat Nawaz Sharif’s party through rigging.

The powerful circles did all kinds of oppression against Tehreek-e-Insaf to keep them away from the election process and the workers of Imran Khan avoid politics out of fear, but all efforts are failing because the workers of Tehreek-e-Insaf are now stubborn. They have come down and they want to make Imran Khan the ruler of Pakistan anyway. Army, police, government agencies, election commission, courts and even every political party tried their best to crush Tehreek-e-Insaaf. Dozens of innocent people were killed, 15 thousand workers are still imprisoned in jails, including a large number of men and women ticket holders of Tehreek-e-Insaf. Despite all this cruelty, Tehreek-e-Insaf has been declared the most popular and largest party in the poll survey of all institutions and seventy percent of the people of Pakistan consider Imran Khan as the best ruler for Pakistan. Apart from PML-N, other traditional parties have realized that if Imran Khan returns to power, their means of earning will be closed and all the politicians will be unemployed. This is the reason why every persecution is being done against Imran Khan and his party in Pakistan. Imran Khan has been convicted in baseless and false cases.

After every attempt against Tehreek-e-Insaf has failed, now the last attempt can be allegedly made that the internet service will be suspended one day before the elections and the service will be restored after the elections so that the workers of Tehreek-e-Insaf who are currently Social media is under complete control and they are exposing all kinds of propaganda immediately so that they can be stopped. In the event of an internet shutdown, Pakistani media, which has been spent billions of rupees on advertisements, will be used to publish fake news as per the script and mislead the public. In this way, by creating the pretense of fake popularity and keeping the innocent people of Pakistan in the dark, the way of victory will be paved for Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, because the Muslim League-N will hardly be able to get ten to twenty seats without rigging. Even now the polling staff of Tehreek-e-Insaf is being kidnapped, the independent candidates supported by Tehreek-e-Insaf are being arrested in fake cases, their workers are being arrested, they are being threatened. Even during the martial law period in Pakistan, there was no such brutality and cruelty as is being seen now. The whole world is deeply concerned about the most controversial elections in Pakistan, which is showing the fear of a major economic, political, constitutional and legal crisis.

On the one hand, concerns are being expressed by the Tehreek-e-Insaf, while on the other hand, while giving a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan’s Caretaker Interior Minister Gohar Ejaz said that there will be peace on holding the elections and the Election Commission should conduct the elections. More than 12 crore Pakistanis will cast their votes on February 8. He said that no decision has been taken yet to stop mobile or internet service at any place, in view of the security situation, if there is a request from any district or province, it will be considered to stop the internet service. Pakistan’s Caretaker Information and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Solangi has also denied the news of internet shutdown as premature rumours, but according to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority sources, there is a strong possibility of internet shutdown.