Nov 21: Pakistan is likely to be running towards ‘real democracy’ if the declaration of Chief Election Commission becomes true. The Chief Election Commission (CEC) of Pakistan has declared yesterday to begin the process of election from Wednesday. The filing of nomination process will go on from today. Pakistani president has already announced to hold the election on the decided date. The Pakistan CEC had declared the polling date on January 08, 2008.
The Chief Election Commission, Qazi Muhammad Farooq yesterday said, “It is the constitutional duty of the EC to conduct elections in a free, fair and impartial manner.” The forthcoming election has been scheduled for all 342 parliamentary seats along with four provisional assembly seats.
Election Commission has said in its press release that election will go on according to Federal government’s code of conduct. The recent ‘code of conduct’ is not far more different from the previous one except one change. There is no written statement about the cost that should be spent by the fighting candidates in any level of election.
The EC has attracted the government’s attention towards ‘Article 8 EE of the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002’ and ‘Section 12 (3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1976’ According to directive, all the candidates who want to fight the election are need to appear personally before the returning officer to file nomination papers.
Justice Farooq has been deployed the controller of this election to hold the election free, fair and peaceful. Both “the national and four provincial assemblies will be held simultaneously all over the country”, EC said in the press release.
Justice Farooq has urged to the public to participate in the election with full enthusiasm and supporting sprit of democracy. He has also urged to the country’s people, especially women to exercise their right to vote by participating in the maximum number and warned to take strict legal action against anyone, who will prevent them for going to the polling stations.
Following the code of conduct, the filling of nomination process begins from today and concludes on November 26. “The scrutiny of the all the papers will go on from November 27 to December 03. The objection against nominee can be filed on December 07. The compiled list will be declared on December 14, while candidate can withdraw its name on December 15. The final nominee list of the candidates will be declared on December 16.” Informed the EC in the press release.
As much as 80 million Pakistanis will exercise their right in election for 342 seats of the lower house of Parliament. Out of 342 seats, 60 seats have reserved for the women, 10 for the minorities while remaining 272 seats are general.
There are 148 seats from Punjab, 61 seats from Sindh, 35 seats from North West Frontier Province (NWFP), 14 from Balochistan, 12 from Federal Administrator tribal areas and two of Islamabad Capital Territory.
In the provincial assembly seats, the cumulative seats for four assemblies are 728, in which 128 reserved for women and 23 for minorities while rest of 577 seats are general. The general seats include 297 seats of the Punjab Assembly, 130 of the Sindh Assembly, 99 of the NWFP Assembly and 51 seats of the Balochistan Assembly.
The election official has said that the election campaign would start around December 10 and polling on January 08 in all provinces. For conducting fair and smooth election, EC has imported 430,000 transparent ballot boxes from China. “The outer cover of the ballot box will be different; green cover ballot box indicates to National Assembly election while white cover denotes provincial assembly election.”, said EC official.
In the recent incident, Pakistani authority has released today 3,400 detainees who were captured during imposing of emergency, while a senior officer of the authority has indicated to release the remaining 2000 captive soon for giving some relaxation in the emergency.
In another incident, President Musharraf has returned from Saudi Arabia with his companion, who has gone to Arabia for getting assurance about former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is now a day in Saudi Arabia and President don’t want his arrival again in Pakistan before general election. It is known that President Musharraf had sent back him to Saudi Arabia, when he was trying to enter in the country. According to Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif had broken the signed agreement held between them while owning the power.
He also went to Makkah as a pilgrim as earlier decided in his schedule.
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