It has been decided to hold the polls in the newly- merged tribal area of of the KPK under the supervision of the Armed forces which proves, if any proof is required, that it is the armed forces only which command respect and confidence of the nation at large and are fully capable to deliver.
It is generally believed that of all the general elections that have taken place in the country hitherto, the polls held in 1970 were , perhaps, the fairest , the reason being that no interference from above was made in them. It is another matter that General Yahya had been wrongly fed with the information that the political parties which he favoured would win hands down so he didn’t think it necessary to gerrymander. Who had conducted that election ? It was the much-maligned civil administration that conducted that election. It follows then that if the civil bureaucracy and the police is not asked from above to rig the polls, they don’t indulge in gerrymandering on their own.
Lately, however, the complexion of civil administration has changed considerably. For quite sometime now, the sitting governments have been appointing their blue-eyed boys as deputy commissioners in the districts on political basis rather than on merit. Junior officers are appointed on senior assignments who then in return are expected by them to dance to their tune in the elections. That things should have come to such a pass is really very unfortunate. It is a pity that barring the armed forces and, to some extent, the judiciary also, the rest of the state organs no longer enjoy the confidence of the masses. Small wonder for every job the sitting governments have to ask the armed forces to help them out.
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