The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Monday took strong exception to a statement recently made by Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar regarding Imran Khan’s participation in the upcoming elections.
“The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) takes strong exception to Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar’s claim that fair elections are possible without senior PTI leaders, including the chairperson Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated in a graft case, and other leaders who were jailed following the 9 May riots,” the body said in a news statement.
Given that the courts have yet to establish guilt in all such cases, the body said Mr Kakar’s claims were “anti-democratic and ill judged”.
The Prime Minister in a recent interview with Associate Press stated that the free and fair election could be held even without Imran Khan who was in jail as of now.
The HRCP said the prime minister should be aware that it was not for him or his government to decide unilaterally “what constitutes a fair election”.
It also raised concern over the “systematic” dismantling of the PTI leadership. “The systematic way in which the PTI leadership has been dismantled—in the shape of mass arrests and re-arrests, forced disassociation from the party, the disproportionate number of cases filed against political leaders and workers (including in military courts), and curbs on their freedom of expression and assembly—has not produced a level playing field,” the HRCP added.
“This is cause for concern because it perpetuates a pattern of pre-election manipulation that was also visible in 2018,” it said while condemning the treatment meted out to former chief minister and PTI president Parvez Elahi, who was rearrested against the directive of the Lahore High Court.
The HRCP reminded the government that responsibility for ensuring free and fair elections rested with the Election Commission of Pakistan.
“The caretaker government must desist from making irresponsible, partisan statements on matters not within its mandate,” the HRCP said while demanding of the government to ensure that an environment conducive to free, fair, credible and inclusive elections was created and maintained.
