ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: The civil society on Friday sought disengagement of judiciary from the election administration, saying that the appointment of judges as district returning officers and returning officers would be unconstitutional and illegal.

Unveiling its 11-point agenda for improving quality of upcoming elections, Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) – a coalition of 42 leading non-governmental organisations--pointed out that Article 220 of the constitution only provides for the assistance of executive in the conduct of elections.

Similarly, section 7 of the Representation of Peoples’ Act defines the qualification of the district returning officers and returning officers, which do not include judges.

It observed that conduct of elections was a massive administrative exercise and did not require judges to manage it.

The amalgam of NGOs called for giving greater authority to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take full control of the electoral processes. They said the ECP should have complete financial and administrative autonomy and authority to alter organisational structure, electoral rules and regulations.

Besides, the commission should also have the authority to appoint district returning officers and returning officers from among all citizens with proven record of integrity and non-partisanship.

The agenda also proposes complete authority to the ECP to suspend any public functionary who fails to comply with its directives despite notice.

It says the ECP and its appointed officials should have complete authority to verify all the documents submitted by the candidates with their nomination papers.

It stresses that any restrictions on the political parties beyond the scope of political parties order 2012 must be avoided, but suggests that political parties must be required to make public their election manifestos at least 45 days prior to the polls.

The parties should also be required to declare their candidates at least for the post of prime minister and chief ministers, to enable voters to make informed choice.The Fafen has also recommended amendment in the Political Parties Order 2002 to define the enlistment of political party alliances and requirements for the grant of election symbols. Any political party that is otherwise ineligible to get an election symbol should not be allowed to become part of an election alliance.

It says that delimitation of constituencies must only be conducted after the general elections 2013.

“The issues of delimitation are not region-specific, but nationwide. Any selective delimitation will, therefore, raise questions about the fairness of the process,” it said.

Pointing out that that while 12 National Assembly seats were allocated for around 16 million voters in Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata) and 14 seats for around 32 million voters in Balochistan, the network observed that the issue of diverse proportion in different regions must be addressed.