Speakers at a one-day workshop organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) have demanded of the government to establish an independent election commission to hold free and fair general elections in the country.
The workshop was organised on the topic of "Improving participation of women, youth and minorities in electoral process in Pakistan". Speakers hailing from different political parties represented their views at the workshop. They said that elections are a fundamental pre-requisite for democracy as it play a significant role in nation building.
For an effective functioning of democracy, however, the role of citizens is not just limited to voting, they need to engage fully the electoral process through their conversion from potential voters to active democratic participants, they added.
As a developing democracy, they said Pakistan has quite a voyage ahead of it in terms of effective participation of all its citizens in the electoral process. From voter registration, education and mobilising of potential voters to provide all with a level playing field to represent their communities and get an access to power structures and participation in decision-making through a system of free, fair and credible elections are all goals towards which constant commitment and action is required.
While problems exist in providing level playing field to citizens to participate effectively in electoral process, these become acute in the case of marginalised groups such as women and minorities as well as youth, which is largely under-represented in electoral process, they added.
The workshop especially focuses on the effective participation of women, youth and minorities in the electoral process in the country in terms of various political, cultural, societal and systematic barriers.
Although women from about 50 percent of the population, but they have traditionally lacked a strong representation in Parliament, Provincial Assemblies, governance structures of political parties and lists of candidates for general seats. Pakistan, for the first time in its history, has increased women representation in the parliament to surpass the world average of 15 percent and women legislators from nearly 22 percent of the parliament, ie National Assembly and the senate. Despite these increased number of women representation in parliament, women still do not enjoy equal opportunities of participation in electoral processes, they added.
The speakers demanded of the government to increase the seats of minorities on the basis of proportional representation system. S. M Zafar was the chief guest at the workshop while among others, Hassan Askari Rizvi, Asia Riaz, Samina Khalid Ghurki, Rana Sanaullah, Parveen Sikander Gill, Uzma Zahid Bukhari, Yasmeen Rehman and Samia Raheel Qazi spoke on the occasion.