I believe the most solemn duty of the Chief justice of Pakistan, Chief of Army Staff and Election Commission is to protect the Pakistani people. If Pakistan shows uncertainty and weakness during this election process, the fair election will drift toward tragedy.

It is also the responsibility of the caretaker government to ensure peaceful environment for the holding of elections.

How peaceful elections could be held amid continuous terrorist attacks
In a video message last month, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan warned people to stay away from political gatherings organized by ANP, PPP and MQM.

A leading Pakistani human rights watchdog has also expressed serious concerns over what it terms the systematic attempts to exclude candidates from elections and to sabotage people’s ability to elect candidates of their choice or to hold them to account.

The TTP’s first victim this election season was the ANP-backed candidate Adnan Wazir, whose election motorcade was targeted with a roadside bomb in northern Pakistan on March 30.

Then, on April 14, a local ANP leader was killed in Swat, and two supporters of another ANP candidate were killed in DI Khan on April 15. The TTP claimed responsibility for both of those attacks as well.

The ANP claims that the Taliban have been killed more than 700 of its workers and leaders, including two provincial legislators and one senior minister.

Pakistan’s third secular party, the MQM, draws support primarily from the country’s commercial capital, Karachi, and from urban Sindh. The MQM has also been forced to focus on corner meetings, door-to-door visits, media appearances, and social media outlets due to the perceived threats from the Taliban.

“Unlike the past, our election drive is all door-to-door visits, corner meetings, telephonic speeches, and media statements,” said deputy MQM convener Dr. Farooq Sattar. In their talks with this writer, both the ANP and MQM leaders said they will file formal complaints about the security threats with the Election

Syed Manzar Imam was assassinated in Karachi this January. The TTP claimed responsibility for the murder and issued a warning that they would carry out more such attacks against the MQM. On April 10, an MQM election candidate was killed in Hyderabad. In last five years the Taliban have been killed more than 100 of its workers and leaders.

Last year, PTI leader Khan led a massive march from Punjab through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to South Waziristan, the stronghold of the Hakimullah Mehsud-led TTP, to drum up support for PTI’s anti-drone campaign. His followers were left unharmed even as they headed into a region of the country that is largely controlled by the Taliban. This year, the PTI managed to hold three massive election gatherings in Lahore, Peshawar, and Swat in the month of March alone. Similarly, PML-N leader Sharif held a public gathering in Mardan on March 8 and Hazara on March 25, while the JUI-F demonstrated its popularity with a large-scale rally at the historical Minar-e-Pakistan monument in Lahore on March 31.

Khan, who is calling his party’s popularity among Pakistani youth a ‘tsunami,’ is a staunch opponent of U.S. drone strikes and Pakistan military operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). He stopped short of condemning the Taliban by name when the militant group targeted 15-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in Swat last year.

Like Khan’s PTI, the JI, JUI-F, and PML-N also shy away from openly challenging the Taliban. Shahbaz Sharif, who until last month was the chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province, appealed to the Taliban to spare the province by pointing out that his government was not involved in operations against them. As a result we have seen no terrorist attacks from Taliban in Punjab.

All so called right wing parties are unite under the umbrella of Taliban. Everyday terrorist attacks on civilians sabotaged fair election process.


http://www.thefrontierpost.com/category/40/