The present civilian government has moved in a democratic transition and has given the responsibility to an interim government both in the center as well as provinces. The last time a civilian government that oversaw the elections, was in 1977 which was set to be responsible for rigging the elections, that eventually led to their ouster and a military coup. This time the elections are been managed by the Election Commission of Pakistan followed by the watchful eyes of the judiciary and the respective interim government both at the center and the provinces for a change.
The president and the military have a very small role to play. The military is in a standby situation ready to assist both for general security as well as ensuring fair play at the ballot box level. This is unprecedented for a country like Pakistan, where constant interference in the democratic process was considered a normal affair.
If this was all that was needed, we as a nation would have celebrated, but what is the most challenging issue at the moment in this forthcoming transition is, the factor of security from those forces who are out to destroy peace inside Pakistan. Already, numerous attacks on various parties have been initiated. The brunt of the attacks seems to be targeting the Awami National Party (ANP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and to an extent the Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) candidates in Sindh.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the election situation is ready and poised for a healthy competition not only amongst major political rivals like JUI, PPP, ANP but also the new arrival PTI whose vote popularity amongst the younger generation is the talk of the town and the villages. Non state actors who have a large share in distributing the security and killing law enforcement agencies have already threatened secular parties not to field their candidates or else be prepared for the worst.
In FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), for the first time the political parties Act has been extended and it was hoped that the tribal people would be allowed to exercise their democratic rights the way they wished. Reports from Waziristan , Khyber and other agencies suggest that display of flags of political parties like PPP and ANP have been banned. It is yet not cleared whether further attacks against these parties would be undertaken in the settled districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The security apparatus presently in place may find itself incapable of understanding a large scale security operations on its own. Thus the most fragmented results that may come out of the elections may be witnessed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where during the last five years there has been no respite from terrorism.
