ISLAMABAD - The caretaker government’s decision to suspend cellular phone services across the country before voters went to the polls for the country’s general elections added to the controversy surrounding allegations of massive rigging.
Minutes before the start of polling at 8am on Thursday, the Ministry of Interior in a statement said that mobile phone services across the country have been restricted temporarily to avert possible threats and to ensure law and order situation during the polling process.
The ministry’s spokesperson said that precious lives were lost in recent incidents of terrorism in the country in the lead up to the general elections.
Three hours after the polling ended at 5pm, the phone services began to resume partially in different parts of the country.
A day earlier, the twin bomb blasts outside the election offices in Balochistan had killed at least 28 people and over 50 injured, prompting fears that terrorists could target the polling stations.
Due to the suspension of internet and other cellular phone services, voters across the country faced difficulties to trace out their polling stations. The voters couldn’t avail an SMS (short message service) service of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to know about the details of their polling stations.
Only a day before the general elections; the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the regulator of telecommunication services in the country, had assured that internet services in the country would work on the polling day without interruption.
The decision to suspend phone services not only invited criticism from rights groups but also from major political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). All three parties separately approached the ECP against the disruption of services amid the electoral process.
The Amnesty International in a statement called the suspension of telecommunications and mobile internet services on the election day “a blunt attack on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.
“It is reckless to impede access to information as people head out to polling stations on the heels of devastating bomb blasts and what has been an intense crackdown on the opposition in the lead up to the elections in the country,” Amnesty International’s South Asia office said in a statement.
“Unwarranted restrictions on dissemination of information, despite reassurances to the contrary from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority and Election Commission of Pakistan, are in breach of people’s human rights at this critical time in Pakistan.”
A spokesperson of PTI in his strongly-worded statement blamed the ECP for “its inability and failure to ensure transparency and credibility of the elections.”
The PTI spokesperson continued that suspension of mobile phone services on the elections day was part of “the systematic conspiracy to deprive people” of their constitutional right to vote by reducing voter turnout.
He alleged that another purpose of shutting down the services was aimed at keeping evidence of rigging at the polling stations veiled and under carpet. Vice-President of the PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said that such moves go against democratic principles and cast a shadow on the electoral process.
“The suspension of internet and mobile networks during elections is a legitimate cause for concern, as these actions can erode the essence of democracy and create a negative impact on the overall electoral proceedings,” she said. She said that effective communication was indispensable on election day, with parties and candidates relying on constant contact with their polling agents. The shutdown raises critical questions about how polling agents can effectively convey their complaints and concerns in the absence of vital communication channels, she added. Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja in a statement said internet disruption would not impact the compilation of election results. He added that the electoral watchdog’s operations were not reliant on the internet and it had an exclusive and independent networking system.