Upcoming general election: Senate body on election issues briefs NDI delegation

The Senate's Special Committee on Election Issues on Tuesday briefed a visiting delegation of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) on the upcoming general polls. The six-member NDI delegation led by Peter M. Manikas, senior associate and regional director for Asia programmes, is currently visiting Pakistan to launch their report on Friday--based on findings about the pre-election scenario.
The meeting, chaired by Convenor of the committee Senator Jahangir Badar, was also attended by its members including leader of the opposition in Senate Senator Ishaq Dar. The head of the delegation, in his observation, said that it was positive development that all the political parties of the country were making arrangements with consensus for holding free, fair and transparent elections.
Another member of the NDI delegation told the panel that the institute has recently facilitated 12 political parties of the country in making recommendations for the ECP in order to ensure free elections. She said that the NDI will come up with its final report based on its findings about the pre-election scenario and the arrangements so far made by the ECP in a press briefing on Friday.
In his opening remarks, Badar briefed the delegation about the composition of the parliamentary panel in order to make legislation for ensuring free, fair and transparent general elections. He said that Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and other political forces of the country want democracy to flourish. He said that the incumbent government by pursing policy of reconciliation was taking all the political parties along which resulted in promoting positive legislation in the parliament.
Senator Dar told the delegation that for the first time in the country's history, Election Commission has been made a totally autonomous and constitutional body in real terms. He further said that it was a good gesture that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) was appointed with consensus of all political parties.
Like appointment and removal of the CEC, Dar added that now similar procedure would be adopted for members of the ECP under the 20th constitutional amendment. He hoped that the next general elections would be held in free, fair and transparent manner under the supervision of independent ECP.
Senator Tahir Hussain Mashadi of MQM apprised the NDI delegation that every political party of the country made countless sacrifices for democracy. He said that the present government made a number of legislation with consensus of all political parties in the parliament. He further added it was for the first time ECP has been made completely independent constitutional body.
Later, the committee also took serious note of the incomplete copy of the code of conduct sent to the panel by Election Commission of Pakistan. The committee members were furious over the ECP for providing it with only 11 pages of the 15-page code of conduct. They asked ECP to provide complete copy of the code of conducts to the panel in its next meeting on Thursday.