Draft code of conduct for elections: political parties, civil society dissatisfied

Speakers from different political parties and civil society on Friday evening expressed their total dissatisfaction with the draft Code of Ethics for the general elections given by the Pakistan Election Commission and urged for full transparence and strong mechanism for its total observance by all the political parties.
These views were expressed at an inter-active dialogue on the general elections and the draft Code of Conduct for the political parties in the general elections as made public by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The dialogue was convened by the president of the Sindh branch of the Tahrik-e-Takmeel Pakistan, Mahfoozun Nabi Khan. He thanked the participants in dialogue, held at a local hotel and said the idea behind the holding of the dialogue was to suggest to the Pakistan Election Commission the required improvements in the Election Code of Conduct for the political parties and to ensure its equal-handed application.
Veteran politician leader from PML (Q) Azad Bin Haider said that the important thing for fair, free and transparent elections in Pakistan was to train the voters in making the right choice and ensuring that the political parties adhere to their election pledges, of which the record so far was very poor.
He said that, as per a survey conducted by the Allama Iqbal Forum and several panels that he headed, there were 16 political parties that represented the 16 crore Pakistanis. These parties were controlled by 160 families, who had their relatives in all the political parties, in the civil and military set up and thus monopolised politics and power in Pakistan as also elections. And these political parties were controlled by sixteen leaders, he added.
He said that in Pakistan, unfortunately, the tendency had grown to first have the party president, then the party letterhead and then form the party itself. He added he had been campaigning for democracy within the PML (Q) and that was the reason why he had engaged in the production of useful historical reference material in the form of books and pamphlets through the Allama Iqbal Forum for the PML (Q).
Haider said that elections in Pakistan must be held in credible manner and the Code of conduct should be strictly implemented impartially. Allama Qazi Ahmed Noorani of the Jamiatul Ulema-e-Pakistan said that Election Commission needed to subject itself first to a transparent code of conduct.
He maintained that political parties must have freedom to campaign in the general elections for seeking public support and any restrictions on subjects on which the political leaders can -- upon would be unacceptable. He regretted the prevalent law and order situation in the country and called for improvement and level playing field for all.
Engineer Shahmir Khan, representing PML (N) said that any restriction under the code of conduct would be unacceptable. Syed Hamid, political analyst commenting on code of conduct of Election Commission said it was tainted and one-sided and discriminatory.
Veteran journalist, Mahmudul Aziz said the Election Commission had drawn up the code of conduct without proper interaction with the stakeholders including the pressmen and editors. The draft code was highly defective and tainted it needed to be revised, he added.