US must not put stable military ties above a democratic Pakistan: Report

A 100-page report of the Commonwealth Observer Group, published on Monday, has cautioned that Washington is no longer able to maintain its thin strategy of prioritizing a stable military alliance at the cost of backing a democratic Pakistan.

The report, as told by the International Business Times, suggests that the US should support the Commonwealth findings and other observer missions' findings. The report asks Washington to make all military aid conditional on specified, verifiable actions towards restoring democracy. These include a neutral probe into voting irregularities, safeguarding judicial independence, and funding for civil society organisations.

The Commonwealth Observer Group analysis points towards extensive evidence that Pakistan's February 2024 elections were rigged to exclude the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Contrary to accusations made by a losing political party, the report cites observations made by international judges and electoral experts, as reported by the International Business Times.

"The Commonwealth report methodically details how state institutions were weaponised to create a 'pre-election period that significantly impacted the level playing field.' The two most consequential actions were judicial. First, the Supreme Court miraculously reversed a lifetime ban on politicians holding office, a move that Madiha Afzal of the Brookings Institution noted was designed to ensure 'the scales had been tipped heavily' in favour of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the military's preferred candidate. Second, and most cripplingly, the Election Commission, with the Supreme Court's blessing, stripped PTI of its iconic cricket bat election symbol," the report highlighted.

Consequently, PTI candidates—prohibited from utilizing their party's symbol—had to present themselves as independents. This made them invisible to electors, especially in constituencies with high illiteracy, and also prevented them from availing themselves of their share of reserved parliamentary seats, the report further stated.

It further reported, "On polling day, the rigging continued. Mobile networks were blocked across the country, which was widely criticized by UN rapporteurs as being against international law. Election monitors such as the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) said that 'election agents were denied the opportunity to monitor result tabulation in roughly half of the constituencies,' and recorded 'serious discrepancies' between votes tallied at polling stations and announced later."

The report also identified young voters who went to the polls in huge numbers, only to have their votes negated by what they felt was an unfair system.

"The resulting government is a weak, illegitimate coalition of parties that, as Brookings Analysis stated, 'will function as a junior partner to the military.' This is a government that has already handed 'unprecedented power to the army.' America is now tethered to a regime with minimal popular support, whose primary constituency is the military brass, not the Pakistani people," the IBT reported.

"The United States can no longer afford its shortsighted policy of prioritising a stable military partnership over a stable, democratic Pakistan. That policy has created the very monster it sought to control: an unstable, nuclear-armed nation where the military is the only winner and the people are disenfranchised," the report stated.