HRCP, in its press release on Monday, stated that it welcomes the fact that the by-polls were organized in peaceful manner. The commission also stated that it welcomes any result as long as it promotes the democratic process but holding the entire elections at gunpoint and under military surveillance is against the democratic principle.
HRCP added that the elections were expensive which highlighted that only the rich could manage to contest the by-polls.
The human rights body stated that both Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) campaigned roughly for the by-elections and resorted to ridicule their opponents through personal attacks.
“People have far important issues than clashes of inflated egos and ear-splitting indulgence in self-righteousness. Elections are supposed to be occasions to advance people’s understanding of democracy and its relevance to their issues. Yet little attention was paid to governance and other issues of significance”, it stated.
HRCP stated that PTI deserves credit for making it a close contest.
It is now the duty of political politics to make sure that politics returns to issues and ways are found to make the people think that their issues can be addressed through the voting process.
