HYDERABAD, Sept 16: Civil society activists have reiterated that the federation would be strengthened if all the federating units are given equal rights and equal seats in parliament. They said 70 per cent of the population had lost all interest in the election process.

They were speaking at an inter-active dialogue on the subject of “Free and fair elections: A prerequisite for a democratic Pakistan” organised by the Pakistan Coalition for Free and Fair Elections at a local hotel here Saturday evening.

They said Punjab had more seats in the parliament as a result of which the smaller provinces were deprived of their genuine rights.

They said a large number of Pakhtoons were living in Karachi whereas tens of thousands of Punjabis were living in interior of Sindh.

They said that Sindh had to face enormous pressure due to this phenomenon. They said that Balochistan was the largest province of the country but it had only nominal representation in the parliament.

It was, therefore, necessary to give more representation to Sindh and Balochistan.

They demanded that an independent election commission should be appointed to hold free, fair and impartial elections and the administration should not be allowed to interfere in the election process.

The executive director of PILER, Karamat Ali, said that due to absence of working class in the parliament, black laws were passed against the workers. He regretted that not a single member had pleaded the case of workers in the National Assembly.

The others who spoke on the occasion included, Mohammad Tahseen of South Asia Partnership, Mustafa Baloch of SPO, journalists Iqbal Mallah and Naz Sehto and others.