ISLAMABAD, July 27: Participants of a workshop on Thursday called for electoral and political reforms to strengthen democracy and improve governance and eliminate military rule permanently.

The workshop on “electoral and political reforms: a prerequisite for democratic governance”, was organized by Pattan Development Organization on the occasion of launching of its reports based on research conducted during the Local Government Election 2005.

Pattan’s National Coordinator Sarwar Bari was of the view that the dynastic control over political parties was weakening the country’s democratic institutions. He called for breaking the nexus between army generals and feudals to strengthen democracy.

The participants also agreed to the Pattan’s point of view that the new voter registration form defied the spirit of joint electorate as it contained a column requiring information on voters’ religious beliefs and a declaration that they were true Muslims.

People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Information Secretary Sherry Rehman said that her party had faced a civil war-like situation in the 2005 local polls, particularly in Sindh, due to massive rigging of the election. She said that her party had prepared its own election paper to bring electoral reforms in the country.

PML-Q MNA Riaz Fatiyana called for elimination of VVIP culture in the country to establish the rule of law and ensure good governance. He suggested a special fund should be allocated for political parties in the budget to strengthen political parties and enhance its public accountability.

Haji Adeel of the Awami National Party (ANP) said the devolution plan had further complicated the political and governance crises in the country. He said that no system could function in any country without involvement of political parties.

Prof Dr Khawaja Alqma, the head of Political Science Department of Bahauddin Zakaria University, said Pakistan still remained a repressive society. He said unfortunately the political parties were not provided space and allowed to work.

Zafarullah Khan, the director of the Centre for Civic Education, said there were 193 countries in the world and there was not a single example where a uniformed man had developed a country.