A flourishing democracy established through free and fair polls can provide a sound basis for the progress and prosperity of any country, this was stressed by the speakers and participants of the people's convention titled 'Vote for a Social Change' organised by Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) and Centre for Human Rights Education (CHRE) in collaboration with Peace and Human Development (PHD Foundation), PACE, DOST, CARE, POWER, LDO, ISB, AWO and YWS.
Speaking on the occasion, the Director of the CHRE, Samson Salamat stressed the need to erase the aberrations created by the military rulers and to return to M. Ali Jinnah's vision of a social welfare and democratic state. "A transparent and credible electoral process is the key for any democratic governance, but unfortunately the electoral process in Pakistan has mostly been controversial due to multiple factors, mainly due to militarily influence and external interference, ineffectiveness of the Election Commission of Pakistan, buying and selling of votes, religious, gender and ethnic biases and meddling of the state institutions," he added.
The Executive Secretary of the AWAM, Naseem Anthony said, "The civil and military bureaucracy's vested interests choked democracy in Pakistan, therefore the political parties and other stakeholders must observe democratic norms and values during the electoral process, whereas the public must play its role to bring about a positive democratic change, and to make the elected representatives accountable by using the power of the vote, as it decides the future of the nation and the country."
A member of the National Assembly, Khalida Mansoor, said: "The election commission has to be independent institution free of any kind of influence, whereas chief election commissioner must carry characteristics, ie, credibility, integrity, reputation and impartiality to deal with the obstacles in the way of electoral process." "Unfortunately, the democracy could not take its roots deep enough to make the country a durable democratic state, because the military influence and external forces have been creating hurdles in the way of smoothly run democracy, and restraining the successive democratic government to complete their tenure," she added.
A women's rights activist, Shazia George condemned the practice of illegal ban on women's vote casting and use of terror or violence during polls in Pakistan. She said, "Personal preoccupations are given priority over national imperatives in Pakistan, therefore, majority of the people cast their votes on the basis of sect, caste, language and egoistic interests and remain indifferent to the importance of their vote."
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