KARACHI, July 17: The politico-religious parties and alliances in the country have started preparations for holding intra-party elections to qualify for the October general elections.

The government has made intra-party or intra-alliance elections mandatory for political parties to participate in the elections with a view to herald a new democratic culture within their ranks.

This is probably for the first time in the 54 years political history of Pakistan that all politico-religious parties, except the Jamaat-i-Islami, are holding elections within their parties for the first time.

Undemocratic culture within the political parties has put the future of a number of them at stake as politics of these parties used to revolve around one person.

When contacted by this news agency, a majority of political parties and office-bearers of alliances were found busy in preparing for the intra-party elections.

The ARD is expected to meet in Karachi on July 28 where some major decisions are expected to be taken, including turning the alliance into an election body, a well-informed source in the alliance said.

A leader of the Pakistan People’s Party said on condition of anonymity that the PPP had planned to organize party elections by the end of the current month, enabling it to qualify for the elections.

“The party high command has decided to conduct elections for central offices towards the end of this month. However, the party is awaiting further announcements on part of the government regarding the elections,” the PPP leader said, referring to a recent meeting of the party leadership.

In response to a question, he said PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had agreed in principle to hold party elections and there were no plan to boycott the October polls. “Elections at the lower level have already been held in the party so apparently there is no need for repeating the exercise,” he maintained.

Ms Bhutto was elected life chairperson of the party about four years ago in a general council meeting of the party, during which she was also empowered to nominate other office-bearers.

Raja Zafarul Haq, acting chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), said the process of holding elections within the party had already started. He said the process to elect new party leadership was expected to be completed by the end of this month.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s provincial chief Asadullah Bhutto was confident and said the condition would not create any problem for them.

He said the MMA had already held elections at the central level two months back. The provincial office-bearers were elected on June 29, while on July 12 office-bearers of Karachi chapter were elected, he said.

A member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s coordination committee, Khalid bin Walid, said the party had started preparation to meet the requirement of the Election Commission and they held election in Hyderabad in this regard.

“The whole procedure will be completed by July 30 and all the required documents will be submitted to the Election Commission well before August 5,” he added.

Ghous Bux Mehar, chief of the PML (QA), Sindh, said the condition did not employ on them as they have recently held elections in the party.

However, he said, a provincial council meeting was scheduled to be held soon which would further review the mater in detail.

Provincial chief of the National Awami Party, Amin Khattak, said the party had decided to hold elections to elect new leadership on July 28 in Peshawar.

He said the provincial office-bearers would be elected on July 19 in all the provinces.

Dr Merajul Huda Siddiqui, JI city chief, said the condition did not imply on his party as it not only held election regularly but got a complete audit of its resources every year.

Secretary-general, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Meraj Mohammad Khan said election process at lower level had already taken off and was expected to complete before August 5.

Prominent Baloch nationalist politician and chief of the Balochistan National Party, Sardar Ataullah Mengal, has asked its councillors to elect a new leadership to run the party affairs as he wanted to play his role as an ordinary member.

In a written message from London to the councillors of the party, he directed them to hold intra-party elections.

There are a number of other parties, including PML-F, Pakistan Democratic Party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, besides both factions of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, which could have faced serious crisis if the government did not give them relaxation to join alliances as they were unable to hold party election due to leadership crisis.—PPI