THE THIRD and final phase of local bodies polls held on Thursday more than demonstrated general approval of present Government’s policies. Pakistan Muslim League and its allies-backed candidates almost swept the elections across the country. In Punjab, the ruling PML won Nazim’s slots in 30 out of 35 districts and its ally, the Muttehida Qaumi Movement, captured the Nazim’s slot as also 16 out of 18 town Nazim posts in Karachi. In NWFP, PML-backed candidates surprised their rivals supported by the ruling Muttehida Majlis-Amal parties, JUI or Jamat-e-Islami, at a number of places. The polls in which the electorate consisted of newly elected councillors and Union Council Nazims were held in a peaceful atmosphere and the Chief Election Commissioner placed the turnout at 100 per cent.
The Prime Minister has felicitated the PML top brass for the impressive victory. It is now to be seen how the newly elected District Nazims proceed to come up to the expectations of the masses in addressing their problems especially in provision of safe drinking water, improvement of sewerage facilities, up gradation and expansion of health care and educational facilities , improvement of road network etc. The District Government system has been consolidated over the years and through power devolution the local bodies are now expected to address most of the day-today problems the public is faced with. The Provincial Governments at their end are legally bound to facilitate the working of the local bodies’ institutions. The Provincial Governments’ impartiality will be put to test where the District Nazims do not belong to the ruling party. The people of the area in no case be made to suffer for want of desired support from the provincial administration.
So far the electoral process has sailed smoothly. However, after the conclusion of the final phase of the local bodies’ polls, a very serious allegation in regard to the role of the big money has emerged. The votes, limited in number, have been freely sold out and purchased. In Frontier province, in a number of cases very rich candidates who are alleged to have spent millions on purchasing loyalties have scored surprise wins. In Punjab, the Provincial Government has been charged with using coercive measures to ensure victory of its candidates. The gathering of a large number of voters in Murree at the cost of the ruling party was reminiscent of the herding of MPA and NINA in Swat and Murree in the early 90’s. The allegation that voters were forcibly kept in Murree does not augur well for the democracy. Of course, for the time being such tactics have helped ruling alliance-backed candidates but the credibility of the system has been adversely hurt. The well-meaning citizens are getting frustrated with the way the political system is being manipulated. As the time rolls by, masses are beginning to believe that transparency in the electoral process is at best a hallow claim not supported by ground realities. Are we trying to turn the entire democratic process into a farce?

We need Turkey

As long as European Foreign Ministers can agree a common negotiating position at an emergency meeting today, the EU will start talks about admitting Turkey to the inner sanctum. Yet although every EU member state bar Austria, whose objections prompted today’s meeting, officially endorses Turkey’s candidature, no single country can muster a majority for entry in opinion polls. The Continent’s electorates, including our own, don’t regard Turkey as European.
This does not make it right to block Turkey’s application. As Lord Patten, a former EU commissioner, warned yesterday, such xenophobia reveals a failure of leadership which can only seriously damage the West’s relations with Islam. There is a strong case for entry which governments must now start making. Europe needs Turkey as a custodian of prosperity and democracy and an exemplar and anchor for all the countries that surround it; it needs Turkish labour and the Turkish guarantee of oil and gas from central Asia. Above all, it needs to send a positive message to the 12 million or so Muslims who already live within Europe.
During the past decade, Turkey has moved heaven and earth to meet the EU accession criterions and now presents itself as a democratic state and market economy governed under the rule of law. True, there remains a culture war in Turkey between those who incline to secularism and those who incline to fundamentalism. True, too, that one of Turkey’s leading novelists, Orhan Pamuk, awaits trial in December for raising the subject of the murder of Armenians during the First World War. Human-rights abuses are routinely reported and free discussion remains precarious. Such issues should be on the table for debate on Monday. But the way forward, for Turkey and Europe, is to maintain the ambition of a shared future.

—Arab News