LAHORE, March 16: How the army, which has not allowed the Constitution to work so far, can be expected to establish independent institutions in the country.

The consensus emerged at a seminar on “Independent and Autonomous Election Commission,” during which the speakers suggested that a wider political struggle was necessary to secure such an institution.

Ihsan Wayne of the National Awami Party was of the opinion that the Constitution guaranteed independent institutions and the army rulers would never encourage such institutions which were designed to check their power.

He said the political parties would have to chalk out an agenda for institution building and then follow it scrupulously. The parties must be helped by civil society for the purpose, he added. Unless the entire society put pressure on the power grabbers, it would be futile to expect such things, he said.

Mr Wayne said president appointed the election commissioner, and one had to look at the history of Pakistan to see who were successive presidents and what their priorities were.

Mr Farid Piracha of the MMA alleged that election commission’s office had been ridiculed and insulted beyond redemption. He further alleged the successive rulers damaged the EC’s neutrality and professional capacity.

He alleged military had resorted to different kinds of rigging and used the EC office for the purpose. The most effective rigging was ‘system rigging’, he said.

Quoting example of the bachelor degree condition for election, he claimed the present parliament had around 42 members who had not completed their graduation. He said these members were sitting in the parliament only because they were on the right side of the divide.

Similarly, he alleged that army created the institution of the National Accountability Bureau to create a political party which mostly comprised those elements who were facing some kind of charges. He said the army engineered almost every elections only to apportion power to people of its own liking. They were never meant to give power to people. In the same streak, it also destroyed the institution of judiciary, he deplored.

In addition to system rigging, he alleged, the army had also been able to carry out post-election rigging by altering results to its own preferences.

In these circumstance, all political parties should wage a struggle for an independent election commission, he said.