May 2, 2003	Friday	Safar 29, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 1: Continuation of electoral and political process is a must to ensure true leadership in the country.

This was the gist of a two-day seminar on ‘Election 2002: Transition to Democracy’ that concluded on Thursday. The seminar was organized by Pattan Development Organization in collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID), UK, and FES Germany. Senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal presided over the concluding session.

The speakers were of the view that true leadership could only be possible if politicians freed themselves from the influence of key players in the power game.

Only such a leadership can respect the rights of minorities, women and other marginalized sections of the society, they added.

The speakers also called for bringing democracy within the partyfold to ensure genuine democracy in the country. They said political parties should increase interaction with the people as without their participation in national issues, democratic process could not continue.

They used a new term ‘Gamla politicians’ for those politicians who were handpicked and groomed by the military, and had no roots among the people.

Ahsan Iqbal said the October elections were a breakthrough in terms of Pakistan’s transition to democracy as these provided a chance for all democracy-loving people and parties to unite on one platform.

He regretted that the civil society was not a part of the LFO debate. He also praised lawyers for raising their voice against the inclusion of the controversial LFO in the Constitution.

On frequent interventions of military in political affairs, Mr Iqbal said the country’s history showed that whenever Pakistan had been asked to play a frontline role in any international scenario, democracy was packed up and a military government installed.

Earlier, the participants presented papers on various issues. Prof Mansoor Akbar Kundi of Balochistan University, in his paper on ‘Electoral politics in Balochistan’, said for the first time voters had rejected nationalist parties in the province in the October polls.

Dr Rasheed Ahmed Khan of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute in his paper on ‘Electoral Trends’ said in every elections, the results were against expectations.

Jami Chandio, a journalist from Hyderabad, said last elections were engineered and manipulated to get results in favour of the government-backed party.

The morning session was presided over by women activist Nasreen Azhar.

Speaking on human rights and democratic transitions in Pakistan, Michael Semple of the DFID said religious intolerance and arbitrary use of force by law enforcement agencies had been making people’s life miserable. He said the accused was not given the chance to speak in defence and it was hard to disagree with the people running the judicial system.

Dr Tariq Rahman of Quaid-i-Azam University presented a research study which he conducted on the level of tolerance towards Ahmedis, Hindus, Christians and women in Urdu and English medium schools and Madaris.

He said generally women teachers and students were more tolerant than men. Tolerance level was high in English medium schools, he added.

Dr Farzana Bari of QAU’s Centre for Women Studies, while speaking on ‘Engendering the Legislative Bodies’ said women from the elite class represented the majority of the marginalized people in legislative bodies.

Cecil Chaudhry, a human rights activist and principal of St Anthony’s College, Lahore, welcomed the restoration of the joint electorate system in the country. He said a separate electorate system imposed by Gen Ziaul Haq had damaged religious harmony.

Sarwar Bari, the coordinator Pattan, regretted that no political party had membership record. He claimed that there were secret voting agreements among various parties in the October elections. Majority of the people feel that there is no difference in manifestos of the parties, he added.