I was shocked to read Israrul Haque’s defense of Article 62 and 63 of Pakistan’s Constitution in his letter “Pakistan’s elections” (April 9). We all know these articles were added to the constitution by the military ruler, Zia-ul-Haq, with maligned intentions to keep the liberal and enlightened people out of the Parliament and provincial assemblies.
After his death in 1988, these articles were not referred to qualify or disqualify election hopefuls. Apparently we are back in 1980s as the establishment in nexus with the judiciary is bent upon applying these vague and open-ended articles to hand pick their favorites in the coming election.
For Haque’s information, if Islam were the basis of Pakistan’s creation, then its 52 percent population would not have separated in 1971, citing economic discrimination and inequality in power sharing.
Selective use of Articles 62 and 63 could be termed as pre-poll rigging. The other pre-poll rigging is being carried out by Taleban under the very nose of the interim government.
Taleban have openly threatened to disrupt the election campaign of liberal-minded political parties. — Masood Khan, Jubail
Pre-poll rigging
