SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Four decades after the cantonment board elections have been conducted. his was the first time that party-based elections were conducted in accordance with the Constitution. Although the government tried its best to avoid to make it a non-party contest, but the judiciary remained keen on the matter and compelled it to follow orders. That the Local Government (LG) polls are scheduled to take place in Sindh, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa next is also because of the judiciary’s constant pressure on the ruling parties and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Results received so far show that most seats will be won by independent candidates. The PML-N and the PTI will emerge as leading political parties, with the latter trailing by a noticeable margin behind the former in line with the result of the general election in 2013. The MQM, as expected, is winning most seats in Karachi and Hyderabad. The PPP, the ANP, the JI, the JUI-F and other political parties have put up a disappointing show.
The election is over and result is out but now there is a real question that various cantonment boards are marred with huge problems.These problems arecreated by vested interest lobbies and the nexus of real estate and land mafia tycoons as well as the autocratic monopolistic attitude of the bureaucracy that holds executive assignments. There seems to be no remedy in sight even with the coming elections to existing problems at the cantonment boards, because those who have been given party tickets and been authorised to manage the election campaigns by three major political parties are controversial men. They are notorious for their involvement in land scams, especially the candidates of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in Lahore. The residents of Karachi cantonment board and DHA continue to face scarcity of clean water, although they have been forced to pay huge amounts as water charges to the Cantonment Board for decades. The other problem is disappearance of amenity plots. With the connivance of the land mafia and bureaucracy, these plots have been converted into commercial or residential plots. If these elections do not play a positive role in resolving issues of residents, it was just a waste of time and nothing else.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
