November 02, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 20, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Eight major political parties on Thursday criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan’s code of conduct for the forthcoming polls and called for extension in the date for submitting amendments to the draft.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion, organised by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and Centre for Civic Education (CCE), the representatives of the parties regretted that the ECP had so far refused to provide a meaningful consultation process in this regard.

Senior leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamiat Ulema Islam (F), Awami National Party, Pashtunkhaw Milli Awami Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and National Party participated in the roundtable.

Referring to the mistakes in the preparation of the voters’ list, they urged the ECP not to make the same mistake again while finalising the code of conduct.

They expressed concern that the draft was seemingly designed mainly to restrict party activities rather than to set out the parameters for an effective and fair campaign by all stakeholders including the government and election officials.

They highlighted lack of a process, in the draft, to implement and monitor the code, plus the absence of penalties for violation, which rendered the code somewhat meaningless.

PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that the draft “falls short of providing any mechanism for monitoring and implementation and does not include any mechanism to address complaints about violation of the code”.

“We do not only want an extension of the deadline for providing feedback on the code but the extended period should be used for broad based multi-party consultations with all the parties,” he stated.

On the content of the draft code, the parties called for removal of those clauses that limited parties’ ability to have mass contact with voters during the campaign and criticised the role of army in politics and governance.

The leaders agreed that the prescribed limit on campaign expenses should be expanded, the ban on commenting on foreign policy and the army should be removed and equal access should be offered to all parties by the official media.

Candidates and polling agents should be provided full access to all stages of the electoral process including the counting process and transportation of the ballots, the leaders said, demanding suspension of the local government system.

PML leader Farzana Malik, PML-N’s Syed Zafar Ali Shah, secretary-general National Party Mir Hasil Bizanjo, MQM MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi, JUI-F Senator Dr Ismail Buledi, Pashtunkhaw Milli Awami Party Senator Raza Mohammad Raza and others also spoke on the occasion.