KARACHI: Pakistan’s survival is linked with fair and transparent elections in the country as all the crises being faced today are the outcome of the practice of acquiring desired results from the polls and non-existence of democratic and political culture in political parties.

This was the consensus of the speakers at the national conference held here in a hotel on Thursday under the auspices of the Sindh United Party. The speakers at the conference, presided over by SUP president Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, on ‘Challenges for establishing transparent political system in Pakistan’ included retired Justice Ghaus Ali Shah of the PML-N, Sen Liaquat Baloch of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Sen Mushahid Hussain Saiyed, Sen Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party, Sen Talha Mehmood of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Dr Jehanzeb Badini of the Baloch National Party, Syed Hafeezuddin of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Advocate Abdul Qayoom of the Qaumi Watan Party, Kamran Tessori of the Pakistan Muslim League-Fuctional, Mazhar Rahuja of the Qaumi Awami Tehreek and Yousuf Mastikhan of the National Workers Party.

The declaration of the conference, which was adopted in the form of a 10-point resolution, signed by all participants and read out by Syed Zain Shah, demanded that a free and independent election commission and a delimitation commission be established, census be conducted this year linking it to the National Database and Research Authorithy (Nadra) and allotting a permanent family number to each family which should be mandatory for the registration of vote, old voters’ list be replaced with thumb impressions and biometric system for casting ballots.

The moot also agreed on the need to promote political and democratic culture of tolerance and co-existence in the political parties, state affairs be run on a non-sectarian basis and without discrimination of religion, nationality, ethnicity and cast.

Terming the continuity of ruthless accountability essential to discourage corruption, nepotism and the aristocratic style of rule, the conference demanded appointment of heads of the NAB and RAB in a transparent manner.

The conference, which expressed deep sorrow over the loss of human lives and livestock in Thar, deplored what they said irresponsible attitude of the Sindh government and condemned the assassination of a nationalist leader of Sindh and demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident and action against culprits.

At the conclusion of the moot when the attention of Syed Ghulam Shah, who was conducting the conference, was drawn towards the absence of representatives of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party, he regreted that despite their commitment they could not attend the conference.

However, almost all speakers appreciated the national spirit of SUP by terming the initiative as the need of the hour and asked Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah to organise such conferences in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta as well for steering the country out of the crisis.

Syed Jalal Shah said the federation’s survival was linked with the democratic system, but if there were no transparent and fair elections, how a representative government would emerge and solve problems of the people.

He said there was a dire need to bring all political parties of the country and all important national personalities at one table to deliberate on all issues and formulate a concrete strategy with combined wisdom for making the state viable.

He suggested to the senators to take up this issue in parliament for debate and the media could also initiate that discussion to develop consensus for establishing a transparent democratic political system in the country.

Retired Justice Syed Ghaus Ali Shah said until there was rule of law, change of mindset and our attitude, there could not be political stability nor democracy could take root.

However, he expressed his optimism quoting the role of ex-chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry who, he said, was able to infuse life into the judiciary and that now it was up to his successors to take it forward.

Sen Liaquat Baloch said despondency, poverty and a sense of deprivation among the people in every part of the country was because of engineered elections every time which despite their votes failed to effect change in the system. And corruption, trampling of merit and principle, non-existence of political culture in political parties persisted, and mostly due to the attitude of the army and bureaucracy which considered themselves the wisest and always remained in power through manipulation.

He said the army, bureaucracy and other government agencies had become strong for want of political culture in political parties and visionary leadership, which instead of giving recognition to committed party workers, promoted nepotism, and awarded ticckets to capitalists and feudals at the cost of dedicated workers.

Sen Mushahid Hussain said Pakistan’s future was linked with Balochistan but we were running everywhere uncalled for. However, he said a new change had come in Pakistan with peaceful transfer of power and in top leadership of various key institutions and this changed democratic Pakistan ought to strive to become a real federation. There was need to give up our role model and mindset to rule like the Mughal kings as politics in the region was also changing, he said, and referred to the emergence of the Aam Admi Party in India, which had put the largest and oldest Indian political party Congress into crisis.

Mr Saiyed said now we have a powerful judiciary and awakened civil society and after this initiative by SUP, it needed to be carried forward so that the people like in other countries came into power through fair elections.

He said a new phase of cold war was beginning in the region due to the emergence of China as an economic power. This development in the region, he said, called to be extremely cautious to get out of the situation.

Sen Hasil Bizenjo highlighted the need to change the foreign policy and mindset of our rulers and said if the document of this conference was implemented, all problems of the country could be solved.

Sen Talha Mehmood said the biggest issue in the country was of justice and merit. He said he had not seen any period during his eight, nine years in parliament any such government as the present one which did not attend parliament.

Dr Jahanzeb Baldini, calling to stop “the ongoing army operation in Balochistan”, he said why the government was giving so much importance to the Taliban and why not taking any initiative to hold talks with the people of Balochistan. He also demanded a halt to killing of political workers in Sindh.