ISLAMABAD - Back-to-back terrorism activities, shortage of funds, unavailability of army for elections and other related matters could be obvious reasons to delay polls in any country. The demand of snap polls by Imran Khan has clearly been turned down by the PDM’s government and now it has seemingly become a far cry to immediately conduct poll in any province. Albeit the PTI chief Imran Khan made possible attempts to compel the government for snap polls yet it mainly remains a wish. Khan kept harping on the government to conduct polls in two provinces [Punjab and KP]. Whereas, the government and concerned institutions have their own say on it. Unlike the past history, PTI has even taken unprecedented steps by dissolving assemblies of two provinces yet it could only get schedule for the polls. Though the repeated political mantra of the party helped the party to grab the attention of the apex court to intervene in this matter, yet the electoral watchdog, sharing dozens of arguments, postponed the polls in Punjab. The fate of elections in KP is still hanging in the balance. The top electoral body has decided to deliberate the matter regarding polls in KP on coming Monday in the light of letter written by KP governor to Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Governor Haji Ghulam Ali, with the clear intention to postpone the election in KP, has drawn the attention towards the fresh wave of terrorism in the north-western province. Mentioning terrorist activities including the recent incident in which a convoy was ambushed in South Waziristan, resulting in the martyrdom of Brig Mustafa Kamal Barki, he asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to delay polls for further five months. The governor, in the letter, suggested that since the ECP has postponed the date for general elections of Punjab to October 8, it is also suggested that the same date should be appointed for the general elections in KP.
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The elections in the Punjab were postponed due to paucity of funds, unavailability of army for providing security on elections day etc. This letter of the KP governor has conveyed same kind of concerns to the body which can pave way for the postponement of the elections.Sharing the expected outcome of the ECP’s meeting to deliberate on KP province, the top members of the ECP hinted that the elections in the KP province would also be delayed. They, desiring not to be named, shared with this newspaper that the matter of KP is even more serious than Punjab so the polls can be postponed. Pakistan in an arduous economic path, struggling to avoid ‘default’ with inflation at 46.6 percent breaking five decades record, is not in a position to experience a new tradition of conducting polls on separate dates. It is also feared that ‘fair play’ in the polls might compromise when the elections would be conducted for the second time for the National Assembly (NA) seats in the same constituencies.
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It would not be out of place to mention here that the government has shared its stance in joint session that elections in separate dates would create chaos in the country. Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, talking to private media, had also mentioned that conducting elections on different dates will definitely put extra burden over the country’s economy.PML-N’s main players Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ayaz Sadiq and others have also openly commented that the country cannot afford conducting the polls on the same day. Whereas, Imran Khan has planned to challenge postponing polls in Punjab in the Supreme Court. PTI believes that the PDM’s government is afraid of PTI’s popularity