Security during polls

The federal cabinet, that met with Prime Minister Hazar Khan Khoso in the chair, concentrated on arrangements that would make it possible for the voter to cast his ballot in an atmosphere of safety and free from the fear of terror. Information Minister Arif Nizami, who briefed the media after the meeting, said that the police and army personnel would be deployed outside the polling stations and not allowed to enter them in order to ensure that the sanctity of the ballot was maintained. The logic is not quite understandable; the security official’s presence even inside the polling station should be seen from the angle of the specific threat of disturbing the process and not taken as impinging upon the ‘sanctity’. Mr Nizami pointed out that the provincial governments had made elaborate arrangements in this behalf as well. They had specifically been advised to take due care of key installations of power and other facilities so that the process of voting could go on undisturbed. Already, the government has announced that there would be no loadshedding across the length and breadth of the country beginning from the evening of May 10 till the process of voting and counting, etc. has been done with. Referring to detailed arrangements, Mr Nizami said that the provincial governments had even been asked to ensure that vehicles did not have tinted glasses; and no one was allowed to display any weapon.When questioned about accountability Mr Nizami’s reaction was sharp, but right: it was not the business of the caretakers to ensure accountability; their mandate was to hold free, fair and transparent elections. The Pandora’s Box of accountability, if ever opened, would let loose all sorts of resentful feelings that would be hard to bring to a close with justice and fairness in the given time, as it happened in the past when the process ended up with witch-hunting. Besides, the Information Minister said that arrangements had been made for the IDPs (internally displaced persons) from KPK and Fata to cast their ballot.

Meanwhile, keeping up with their reprehensible mission, the TTP carried out twin blasts targeting an election office of the MQM, close to its headquarters, putting to death three and wounding nearly 40, including children and three Rangers on Saturday. Such attacks tragic and deeply frustrating, though, should strengthen the authorities’ resolve to mercilessly take on all those elements that want to drive us back to the Middle Ages, are against decent modernisation and our peaceful ways of living. It would be suicidal to thither in the face of such a threat.