THE Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been working towards conducting free and fair elections since 1956. But in recent years shortfalls in the electoral systems and the commission’s structural weaknesses have come to light.

To remove those lacunae, a parliamentary body was formed to recommend suggestions for strengthening the electoral system. However, the slow pace of work on electoral reforms is a major cause of concern.

Recently in a section of the press, the ECP demanded complete financial autonomy as well as autonomy in managing the government machinery.

The ECP made this demand after analysing that it does not have the requisite control over the civil servants involved in conducting elections. The point worth mentioning is that the ECP does not have an official mandate to directly punish any civil servant it finds involved in unfair means during elections, save requesting the competent authority of such an officer to take disciplinary action against him.

The Indian election commission has far more powers in this context. Similarly, there are other areas ranging from amendments in the Constitution and electoral laws to reviewing structural weakness in the ECP that need to be addressed immediately before the next elections.

Sahito Zaheer

Khairpur

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2016