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| June 24, 2005 | Friday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1426 |
Call for independent election commission
ISLAMABAD, June 23: Various political leaders and representatives of civil society organizations on Thursday called for an independent election commission to discourage rigging in the forthcoming local bodies polls as well as general elections in 2007. They were speaking at a discussion organized by the Liberal Forum Pakistan (LFP) to evaluate various aspects of the issues raised by an impetus research paper “Conducting Elections for Public Representatives; Call for an Independent Election Commission” written by a social researcher and member of LFP, Gulmina Bilal.
Opposition Leader in the Senate Raza Rabbani termed the ongoing disintegration of various districts and tehsils in Sindh and the Punjab pre-poll rigging.
He said no hopes could be pinned on the forthcoming local bodies elections until and unless the civil and military bureaucracies changed their existing mindset and gave value to the importance of rights of the masses to elect their representatives.
He asserted the viewpoint of Gulmina Bilal regarding putting an end to the existing criterion of selecting the chief election commissioner (CEC).
He said it was an irony that the CEC, which was appointed by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, was entrusted with the task of conducting his presidential referendum.
Mr Rabbani said the position of CEC was still vacant and at present the duties were being performed by an acting chief election commissioner. He alleged that the government had intentionally kept the position vacant to pressure the acting CEC.
He demanded the government not to make any changes in the location of the polling stations when 15 days were left for the elections to avoid confusion among the voters.
Mr Rabbani observed that without the presence of Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto and Altaf Hussain no fair and free elections could be expected. He said only the people must decide whether to vote for these leaders or against them.
PML-N MNA Tehmina Daultana slammed the repeated intervention of the army in politics and held them responsible for the present dismissal state of democracy and lack of validity of various elections held under the military regime.
She said the Punjab chief minister was empowered a couple of days ago to suspend the district nazim which was against the norms of the devolution of power.
Dr Farooq Sattar of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) demanded that the existing voters’ lists should be computerized and made available online.
He said awareness should be created about the value of holding elections in a peaceful environment.
Minister of State for Culture and Youth Affairs Mohammad Ali Durrani defended various moves taken by the government for the freedom of media and expression as well as democracy.
He also stressed the need for creating more seats at the union council level and taking measures to encourage the middle class people to hold power.
Gulmina Bilal suggested that the chief election commissioner and the other four members of the ECP should be appointed through a consultative process involving all main political parties and relevant organizations of the state to restore credibility and neutrality of the commission.
Peter Andreas Bochmann, Resident Representative of the Fredrich Naumann Foundation, said Pakistan had a parliament, political parties and elected representatives, however, there was still a big question mark whether the elections were conducted in a free and fair manner.
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