ISAS Briefs

There is never a dearth of excitement in Pakistani politics. This extends to even the period of the brief caretaker regime, which lasts for around three months, and whose sole objective is to hold national elections. This is a model borrowed from Bangladesh. To be fair, Pakistan has managed to use it more effectively than the country it drew upon, which has since discarded it. But the political turmoil in Bangladesh is evidence that it has not been able to replace it with any workable mechanism on which all sides have consensus. It is important to agree on the method of holding elections in societies where political differences can and do often take violent forms. In Pakistan, this hurdle of an agreed method has at least been cleared.