ISLAMABAD, Feb 6: The government in principle has decided to withdraw the condition of graduation for the candidates of national and provincial assemblies, Dawn reliably learnt.
The decision to do away with the condition of graduation has been taken in principle, but the NRB think tanks engaged in preparing constitutional reforms package were still not clear whether it should be brought down to intermediate or matriculation or removed altogether, a source said.
The NRB experts were mulling over two different proposals: either to bring down the qualification limit to intermediate or Matric level or to introduce different qualifications for candidates belonging to urban and rural areas, particularly those of Balochistan, the NWFP and Sindh, the source said.
However, the NRB experts had not reached any conclusion, which was also resulting in the delay of a final announcement regarding the issue.
Almost all the political parties had opposed the decision saying that it would deprive almost 98 per cent of the people of their fundamental right to contest the elections.
The other changes made in the electoral system such as reversion to joint electorate system from separate electorate, enhancement of the number of national and provincial assembly seats and introduction of technocrat seats had been largely welcomed by the political parties.
The political parties had also held that the condition of educational qualification was repugnant to the concept of equality, which formed the basis of the constitution.
Almost all the political leaders, who met President Musharraf during the past one week, had expressed their serious concern over the condition introduced by the government with the avowed objective of improving the quality of the elected institutions.
A delegation of women wing of Pakistan Muslim League (QA), which met Chairman National Reconstruction Bureau on Monday had also demanded that there should be no condition of educational qualification for women as the literacy ratio among the women was even lower than among men.
