January 05, 2008	Saturday	Zilhaj 25, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: A group of eminent citizens, including retired judges and generals, on Friday said that the postponement of elections to February 18 was beyond the prescribed constitutional deadline and opposed any further delay of the polling process for one reason or the other.

They were speaking at a meeting of the Citizens Group on Electoral Process (CGEP), organised by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT). It was presided over by former chief justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui.

The group said the postponement had violated the letter and spirit of the Constitution and noted that the Article 254 could not be invoked to postpone the elections beyond the prescribed limit.

It said the postponement had been motivated by partisan considerations which amounted to pre-rigging the electoral process, despite serious damage to property and facilities. “There was no credible logistical reason to postpone the entire election. The postponement manifests the partisan disposition of the Election Commission and the federal government.”

According to a press release, the group expressed disappointment over the failure of the Election Commission to enforce the code of conduct which was being repeatedly violated by some political parties, the administration and local government officials.

It said that free, fair and transparent elections were not possible in the absence of a “truly independent judiciary”. It called for the appointment of a new chief election commissioner with the consensus of political parties. It also demanded that the Election Commission should be reconstituted to represent all provinces as required under the Constitution because the existing commission did not fulfil the requirements of the Constitution.

“The Election Commission needs to take urgent and serious notice of the newspaper advertisements of a political party playing up regional-ethnic sentiments for the sake of votes. This effort, if not checked immediately, can sharpen regional polarisation and pose a serious threat to internal harmony and stability.

“The EC should exercise vigilance and take strict action against any political party, or any other elements that provoke disharmony between people of the four provinces,” it stressed.

The CGEP said that the recent developments underlined the inescapable duty of the office of the Presidency to play a strictly non-partisan role. It, however, added that because the present president was an avowed partisan and his election on Oct 6, 2007, was devoid of legal and moral authority, it would be better in the national interest that he should step down.

The group offered Fateha for Benazir Bhutto. It said the assassination of the PPP leader was a tragic loss and an enormous blow to the democratic process.

“Ultimate responsibility rests with the state and the caretaker government that have an obligation to secure the life of every citizen. In this instance, there was a special, additional duty of the government to ensure optimal safety for a leader of great eminence who was already unsuccessfully targeted on October 18, 2007.

“Failing to conduct an autopsy on the slain PPP leader as per the categorical requirements of the law and hastily hosing down the crime scene, the caretaker government has provided at least 3 different versions of the causes of death of Benazir Bhutto. Such premature, inconsistent claims raise well-founded concerns about the actual motivations behind the creation of such confusion,” it argued.

The group said that the investigation into all aspects of the assassination should be conducted by an authentically independent commission of inquiry headed by a person whose integrity and ability were accepted by the heads of all major political parties.

“The virtually unprecedented breakdown of law and order across the country and especially in Sindh from the evening of Dec 27 to 31, 2007, is an abysmal, shameful failure of the federal and provincial governments and law-enforcing agencies to anticipate and prevent the killing of innocent citizens and the massive destruction of public and private property.

“There were substantive grounds for the view that, however large-scale and spontaneous the violence was, in which criminal elements were brazenly allowed to kill, loot and burn, it appears that the invisibility of law-enforcement agencies for the first 100 hours and then belated deployment was a deliberate ploy to create a situation that could justify the postponement of polls beyond January 8, 2008.”

The meeting observed that the assassination of a major national leader had led to suspicions and speculations that had the potential to adversely impact on inter-provincial harmony. “We believe that considering all the dimensions and possible fallout, the situation needs to be handled with extraordinary care and sensitivity so that the heat of the election does not worsen conditions and perceptions,” it stressed.

Members of the CGEP who attended the meeting included Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, Former ISI DG Ghazi Salahuddin, defence and political analyst Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, Gallup Pakistan Ltd chairman Dr Ijaz Shafi Gilani, former minister Javed Jabbar, former Sindh governor Lt-Gen (retd) Moinuddin Haider, editor of the Nation Arif Nizami, editor-in-chief of Daily Pakistan Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami, former LHC judge Justice (retd) Nasira Iqbal, former NWFP chief secretary Omar Khan Afridi, lawyer Dr Parvez Hassan, former Senator Shafqat Mahmood, former interior secretary Tasneem Noorani, PILDAT executive director Ahmed Bilal Mehboob and PILDAT joint director Ms Aasiya Riaz.

Former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) Khalil-ur-Rehman and former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad attended the meeting as observers.