PESHAWAR, June 28: The Pakistan Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (PACFREL) has called upon the government to hold the coming elections under the supervision of a neutral caretaker government.

It said that an independent judiciary was essential for a democratic society and demanded of the government to withdraw the reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

According to a press release, the PACFREL held a meeting of civil society organisations representing 20 districts of the NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) here on Wednesday. About 50 representatives of various organisations attended the meeting. It was arranged by the South Asia Partnership Pakistan and was presided over by its executive director Mohammad Tahseen.

The meeting decided to launch a political education campaign for free, fair and democratic elections in all districts of the NWFP and help people register themselves in the voters’ list. It was decided that meetings would be held in every district and responsibilities would be assigned to civil society organisations, NGOs, media organisations, lawyers, youths, women and minorities.

The PACFREL will also monitor elections independently. A training programme for 400 local monitors will be held in July. They will monitor the elections along with other international observers.

The meeting stressed the need for coordinated actions by civil society organisations to address the problems of political instability, tussle between various state institutions, exclusion of people from political processes and democratic deficit. It demanded that the elections should be held under an independent Election Commission.

The participants of the meeting criticised the role of the Election Commission and said that the display of electoral lists was a futile exercise as most of the people were not able to access display centres. They demanded of the government to extend the registration date as 20 million people were missing in the voters’ list.