Bi Bye elections: Democracy moves on

Blog Saturday, January 30th, 2010

AS brisk electioneering is going on in NA-55 Rawalpindi and NA-123 Lahore, people of Mansehra and Swat exercised their right to vote on Thursday to elect their representatives for one seat each of the National Assembly and the NWFP Assembly. By and large, the polling remained peaceful and the turn-out of the voters also reflected their yearning for the democratic process.

Holding of elections in two constituencies of the NWFP is by no means a small achievement if viewed in the backdrop of security environment and law and order situation in the strife torn province. Only a few months back, the situation in Swat and Malakand forced the authorities to go for a surgical operation to establish writ of the Government. The highly provocative activities of the militants and the resultant military operation drove out about 2.5 million people from their homes to seek refuge at temporary camps or with their relatives in safer places of the NWFP and Punjab. The credit goes to the Pakistan Army for completing the operation in a swift manner, and to the Government for successfully undertaking the task of rehabilitation of such a large number of people in the shortest possible time. Though there are still stray incidents of terrorism in Swat and Malakand yet on the whole the situation is under control and normalcy is returning to the area. Conduct of successful elections would also infuse a new spirit among people and send a positive message to the outside world about the situation in the troubled region. We hope that now the Federal and Provincial Governments, with the active collaboration of the international community, would move with speed towards implementation of the Swat package so as to restore glory of this tourist resort at the earliest. The elections have also established once again the fact that democracy is the choicest preference for people but there is a limit to everything and the Government must take measures to come up to the expectations of the people.

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