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| June 24, 2002 | Monday | Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1423 |
Condition of graduation to harm democracy: politicians
QUETTA, June 23: The condition of graduation for the candidates of the general election scheduled to be held in October is not in the interest of the country and democracy.
Awami National Party (ANP) Secretary-General Dr Inayatullah said this, while commenting on the promulgation of the graduation ordinance here on Sunday.
He said that when the graduation condition had first been proposed, his party had opposed it. At several meetings with President Gen Pervez Musharraf, ANP leaders had told him that such a proposal would not be welcomed by the people.
Dr Inayat said that even in those countries, where literacy rate was 100 per cent or around it, such conditions had not been imposed “though it is good for parliamentarians.”
He said his party had proposed to the president that the condition of matriculation be imposed first and later only those candidates holding degrees of intermediate be allowed to contest the elections if the education standard improved.
Asked if the ANP would challenge the ordinance in a court of law, he said the party would adopt every peaceful legal, political and democratic method to express its reaction against the ordinance.
Meanwhile, former MNA and leader of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), Sanaullah Baloch, said the government was bent upon depriving the “real” democratic politicians of representing the people by imposing the condition of graduation and bringing stooge to power.
President Pervez Musharraf outraged opposition politicians on Sunday by issuing an overnight order banning anyone without a university degree from standing in the upcoming general election.
Nawabzada Nasrullah, chairman of the 15-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), said the new law, which will disqualify a large number of current politicians from standing, was a “violation of the basic human rights and norms of democracy.”
“The October elections will not be fair, free and transparent if restrictions were imposed on politicians,” he told AFP by telephone from Multan.
“It is only voters’ right to reject a candidate,” he said.
Only candidates holding a bachelor’s degree from a recognized university will be allowed to stand in the general election scheduled for October, the overnight order said.
“A person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of parliament or a provincial assembly unless he is at least a graduate possessing a bachelor’s degree in any discipline,” it said.—AFP/PPI
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