Hong Kong, May 18 (TNS): The Election Commission of Pakistan in a surprising move has decided not to invite international observers to cover the upcoming general election, reports Hong Kong-based Asia Times here on Friday.
In a new code of conduct issued for foreign observers, the ECP has stated that no foreign observers will be invited; by the ECP instead, any foreign observer wants to monitor the elections will need to apply for visa himself which will be conditional on security clearance from Pakistan Foreign Ministry.
The report suggested after the move, it can be easily understood that by giving the cold shoulder to international observers the invisible forces in Pakistan are making it certain that on election day they will have a free hand to manipulate the results. As the Pakistani media are already facing undeclared censorship, it will be a blow to all the pro-democratic forces if the decision to keep out international observers is not rescinded.
The report added that management of the mainstream media is being told not to give airtime and space to opponents as after Nawaz Sharif’s recent statement on the Mumbai attacks, there is an undeclared restriction on a few of his party members who are defending his narrative.
On the other hand, the report claims that Imran Khan, leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is being presented as a darling and being projected as the patriotic and ethical politician. With mainstream media already under censorship and now with the ECP’s refusal to give free space to international election observers, it seems clear that Pakistan is heading toward an engineered general election, and as a result, the military establishment will succeed in bringing in a coalition government that will happily take dictation and work at their behest.
Courtesy: Asia Times
