DAWN Editorials - 2nd July 2025
Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2025 6:26 pm
ECP reshuffle
THE present Election Commission is at the centre of so many storms that it seems prudent to reconstitute it without further delay.
A vital institution, the ECP is responsible for protecting Pakistan’s democracy and upholding democratic principles, mainly through the conduct of free and fair polls. Over the past three years, however, it seems to have done anything but that. It has not only disregarded constitutional edicts — for example, regarding election timelines — and issued illegal decisions — such as denying a major political party its right to contest elections — but has also failed to conduct a free and fair general election or ensure that democratic principles were upheld during the many controversies that followed.
Of course, it is not that past commissions were free of controversy. Rigging and manipulation disputes followed the two elections preceding 2024 as well, particularly in 2018. But what is complicating matters now is a technical roadblock preventing the ECP from making a fresh start.
The delay in reconstituting the ECP’s membership following the expiry of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and the Sindh and Balochistan members’ tenures in January this year has put the institution under the spotlight. Though critics have repeatedly called the ECP’s integrity into question, a provision introduced under the controversial 26th Amendment allows them to stay on till their replacements are appointed.
The government clearly has little interest in seeing them gone, but the opposition, too, seems more interested in playing politics than pushing the process forward. Though the PM has written to the opposition leader in the National Assembly to seek consultations, he has not given a meeting date; the opposition leader wants to skip a tête-à-tête altogether and desires, instead, a parliamentary committee to be appointed pre-emptively to determine the appointments — a demand which the NA Speaker has turned down.
Given that the current commissioners can stay indefinitely, it is unlikely that the effort to reshuffle the ECP will achieve much, unless either the government or the opposition takes up the matter seriously.
The ruling elite must remember that the current formula, of engaging both government and opposition in the appointment process, was done through the 18th Amendment after past experience taught political stakeholders that a neutral, mutually acceptable commissioner appointed after deliberation and consultation would serve everyone’s interests. Abandoning this formula would be another serious blow to Pakistan’s democratic progress since its last dictatorship.
The opposition, too, must approach the matter with seriousness. The opposition leader must keep pushing publicly for a meeting with the PM. Refusing to talk to rivals has not and cannot help the PTI achieve its goals. It must honour the process and move it forward.
Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2025
Regional partners
SENIOR officials from Pakistan, China and Bangladesh met in the Chinese city of Kunming recently to test the waters for a new trilateral mechanism for regional cooperation. The meeting between the Chinese vice foreign minister, Bangladesh’s acting foreign secretary, and Pakistan’s relevant additional secretary, concluded in pledges by all three states to see how engagement in trade, culture and education, amongst other areas, could be expanded. The meeting principally reflects China’s desire to expand ties with regional states. As the Chinese official noted, both Pakistan and Bangladesh are “good neighbours, good friends, and good partners of China”. Both Islamabad and Dhaka are also partners with Beijing in the latter’s Belt and Road Initiative, of which CPEC is a part. Chinese efforts to spur regional integration and reduce tensions have also been visible in the recent rapprochement between Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, the meeting in Kunming has made certain quarters uneasy; for example, some in India are saying the trilateral moot is paving the way for the replacement of Saarc, even though the official Chinese statement said that “China-Bangladesh-Pakistan cooperation adheres to true multilateralism … not directed at any third party”.
If today Saarc is a moribund outfit — South Asia is amongst the world’s least integrated regions — it is India that shoulders the most blame. New Delhi has spent much of its energy trying to isolate Pakistan regionally and internationally, and Saarc has become dysfunctional as a result of these ill-advised efforts. India is welcome to re-engage with Pakistan, and reviving Saarc can be a priority. It is also welcome to join efforts by Pakistan, China and Bangladesh to expand regional integration. But there is little chance of this happening, considering the jingoistic anti-Pakistan mood prevailing in India. By no means should New Delhi attempt to sabotage efforts by Pakistan to engage with regional states. While Pakistan-China ties are deep and multifaceted, relations with Dhaka have improved with the fall of the Hasina Wajed regime last year. The ex-Bangladesh PM had consistently given Pakistan the cold shoulder, and was close to India. The positive momentum should be maintained through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms, and it is hoped that the new dispensation that comes to power in Dhaka after elections next year continues to improve ties with Pakistan.
Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2025
Dengue season
WITH the monsoon season underway in Pakistan, the threat of another dengue outbreak hangs over us. The warning signs are here: Sindh logged its first dengue-related casualty with the death of a young male patient at the Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital. In June, Karachi recorded 32 new dengue incidents, with single cases in Mirpurkhas and Sukkur. This year, Sindh reported 295 dengue cases; 260 of these were from Karachi. While the June count is significantly lower than in the past four years, the health authorities cannot afford to let their guard down. Besides, climate change has altered the pattern of vector-borne infections as well as engendered new temperature-resilient mosquito species. Without a sustained, comprehensive programme, timely precautions and mass awareness, annual surges will be difficult to block.
In 2017, KP set an example by seeking help from the Punjab government, which had fought a dengue epidemic in 2011 with a remarkable strategy involving collaboration between Pakistani, Indonesian and Sri Lankan medical experts. New regulations were enforced to thwart the seasonal health emergency. The time has come for Sindh to follow suit. The province must prioritise the public’s well-being and implement an upgraded version of the Punjab template, alongside carrying out extensive fumigation drives as well as providing skilled medics and medicines to ease symptoms and avoid critical cases of low platelet counts. The fact that Punjab has been dengue-clear through June shows that through early directives and heightened public and administrative alertness, it has managed to contain the disease, which is laudable. To ensure that the populace does not have to endure repeated bouts of agony, deterrence initiatives must at the very least keep pace with mosquito breeding. Access to hygienic living conditions and cost-free dengue tests is the antidote to the Aedes aegypti mosquito that thrives in fresh water.
Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2025
THE present Election Commission is at the centre of so many storms that it seems prudent to reconstitute it without further delay.
A vital institution, the ECP is responsible for protecting Pakistan’s democracy and upholding democratic principles, mainly through the conduct of free and fair polls. Over the past three years, however, it seems to have done anything but that. It has not only disregarded constitutional edicts — for example, regarding election timelines — and issued illegal decisions — such as denying a major political party its right to contest elections — but has also failed to conduct a free and fair general election or ensure that democratic principles were upheld during the many controversies that followed.
Of course, it is not that past commissions were free of controversy. Rigging and manipulation disputes followed the two elections preceding 2024 as well, particularly in 2018. But what is complicating matters now is a technical roadblock preventing the ECP from making a fresh start.
The delay in reconstituting the ECP’s membership following the expiry of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and the Sindh and Balochistan members’ tenures in January this year has put the institution under the spotlight. Though critics have repeatedly called the ECP’s integrity into question, a provision introduced under the controversial 26th Amendment allows them to stay on till their replacements are appointed.
The government clearly has little interest in seeing them gone, but the opposition, too, seems more interested in playing politics than pushing the process forward. Though the PM has written to the opposition leader in the National Assembly to seek consultations, he has not given a meeting date; the opposition leader wants to skip a tête-à-tête altogether and desires, instead, a parliamentary committee to be appointed pre-emptively to determine the appointments — a demand which the NA Speaker has turned down.
Given that the current commissioners can stay indefinitely, it is unlikely that the effort to reshuffle the ECP will achieve much, unless either the government or the opposition takes up the matter seriously.
The ruling elite must remember that the current formula, of engaging both government and opposition in the appointment process, was done through the 18th Amendment after past experience taught political stakeholders that a neutral, mutually acceptable commissioner appointed after deliberation and consultation would serve everyone’s interests. Abandoning this formula would be another serious blow to Pakistan’s democratic progress since its last dictatorship.
The opposition, too, must approach the matter with seriousness. The opposition leader must keep pushing publicly for a meeting with the PM. Refusing to talk to rivals has not and cannot help the PTI achieve its goals. It must honour the process and move it forward.
Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2025
Regional partners
SENIOR officials from Pakistan, China and Bangladesh met in the Chinese city of Kunming recently to test the waters for a new trilateral mechanism for regional cooperation. The meeting between the Chinese vice foreign minister, Bangladesh’s acting foreign secretary, and Pakistan’s relevant additional secretary, concluded in pledges by all three states to see how engagement in trade, culture and education, amongst other areas, could be expanded. The meeting principally reflects China’s desire to expand ties with regional states. As the Chinese official noted, both Pakistan and Bangladesh are “good neighbours, good friends, and good partners of China”. Both Islamabad and Dhaka are also partners with Beijing in the latter’s Belt and Road Initiative, of which CPEC is a part. Chinese efforts to spur regional integration and reduce tensions have also been visible in the recent rapprochement between Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, the meeting in Kunming has made certain quarters uneasy; for example, some in India are saying the trilateral moot is paving the way for the replacement of Saarc, even though the official Chinese statement said that “China-Bangladesh-Pakistan cooperation adheres to true multilateralism … not directed at any third party”.
If today Saarc is a moribund outfit — South Asia is amongst the world’s least integrated regions — it is India that shoulders the most blame. New Delhi has spent much of its energy trying to isolate Pakistan regionally and internationally, and Saarc has become dysfunctional as a result of these ill-advised efforts. India is welcome to re-engage with Pakistan, and reviving Saarc can be a priority. It is also welcome to join efforts by Pakistan, China and Bangladesh to expand regional integration. But there is little chance of this happening, considering the jingoistic anti-Pakistan mood prevailing in India. By no means should New Delhi attempt to sabotage efforts by Pakistan to engage with regional states. While Pakistan-China ties are deep and multifaceted, relations with Dhaka have improved with the fall of the Hasina Wajed regime last year. The ex-Bangladesh PM had consistently given Pakistan the cold shoulder, and was close to India. The positive momentum should be maintained through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms, and it is hoped that the new dispensation that comes to power in Dhaka after elections next year continues to improve ties with Pakistan.
Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2025
Dengue season
WITH the monsoon season underway in Pakistan, the threat of another dengue outbreak hangs over us. The warning signs are here: Sindh logged its first dengue-related casualty with the death of a young male patient at the Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital. In June, Karachi recorded 32 new dengue incidents, with single cases in Mirpurkhas and Sukkur. This year, Sindh reported 295 dengue cases; 260 of these were from Karachi. While the June count is significantly lower than in the past four years, the health authorities cannot afford to let their guard down. Besides, climate change has altered the pattern of vector-borne infections as well as engendered new temperature-resilient mosquito species. Without a sustained, comprehensive programme, timely precautions and mass awareness, annual surges will be difficult to block.
In 2017, KP set an example by seeking help from the Punjab government, which had fought a dengue epidemic in 2011 with a remarkable strategy involving collaboration between Pakistani, Indonesian and Sri Lankan medical experts. New regulations were enforced to thwart the seasonal health emergency. The time has come for Sindh to follow suit. The province must prioritise the public’s well-being and implement an upgraded version of the Punjab template, alongside carrying out extensive fumigation drives as well as providing skilled medics and medicines to ease symptoms and avoid critical cases of low platelet counts. The fact that Punjab has been dengue-clear through June shows that through early directives and heightened public and administrative alertness, it has managed to contain the disease, which is laudable. To ensure that the populace does not have to endure repeated bouts of agony, deterrence initiatives must at the very least keep pace with mosquito breeding. Access to hygienic living conditions and cost-free dengue tests is the antidote to the Aedes aegypti mosquito that thrives in fresh water.
Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2025