A six-member delegation of Commonwealth Observers on Thursday visited Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in connection with the local government elections.
The delegation included Justice Anastasia Msosa, Chief Malawi Electoral Commission, Zulkefi bin Kamaruzzaman, former State Elections Officer Malaysia, Alison Sutherland, Local Government Association, United Kingdom, Councillor A.W.M. Arshad, Colombo City Council Sri Lanka and staff Jlie Broadbent and Abaora Ikenze.
ECP Secretary Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad welcomed the members and apprised them about the local government elections, to be held on August 18 and August 25 in two phases across the country.
Kanwar Dilshad informed the observers that first elections to the local government institutions under the present system were held in 2000-01, as a result whereof district governments came into being for a term of four years.
He explained that developed countries had always been the torchbearers of democracy and extending their fullest co-operation in the development of democratic culture in this part of the world.
He said the local government institutions acted as nurseries for development of democracy and under the Devolution Plan, the local government elections were being held to strengthen democracy at the grassroots level.
He said that the brightest feature of this system was that women had been given representation with full empowerment for the first time in the political history of Pakistan as their representation raised to about 33 percent at the grassroots level.
The delegation was also apprised of the security system by Tipu Muhabbat Khan, Joint Secretary (Security) from Interior Ministry.
Later, Muhammad Saleem Akhtar, Joint Secretary in the Election Commission, with his team gave detailed presentation about the forthcoming local government elections.
National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) Member Naeem-ul-Haq also briefed the observers about the local government functions on district, tehsil, town and Union Council levels.