The speakers at a seminar on Monday warned that the country could face a 1971-like situation if the coming elections were not held free and fair. The seminar was organised by Sustainable Development and Policy Institute (SDPI) on "Is a Free and Fair Election Possible in Pakistan?"
Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Secretary General Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, B A Malik of PPPP and Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director, Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency (PILDAT) highlighted different aspects of the election process in the country.
They also questioned the possibility of free and fair elections and demanded of the government to set up a caretaker government of national consensus, an independent election commission, and participation of exiled leadership of PPPP and PML (N) in the elections.
PML (N) leader Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said that the way present government was doing the things clearly suggested that the next general elections would be the most rigged elections in the history of the country.
He said president has to be a symbol of unity accepted to all stakeholders who could also provide a level-playing field to all political forces but unfortunately, he alleged president was manipulating all the political process to create a favourable environment for Kings party.
He strongly objected president's participation in different meetings, appeals to nation, oversight to Ministers' abuse of powers and refusal to allow leadership of popular political parties to take part in the election process.
B A Malik, former ambassador and central leader of the PPPP cautioned that if General Musharraf remained in power the free and fair election is not possible in the country.
According to him, institutions have been broken, election commission cannot stand up and judiciary has been so generous to legitimise the military take-overs so the people of Pakistan have a primary responsibility to accept or reject their political representatives.
Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, identified five major stakeholders such as people, political parties, present government, election commission and judiciary who had stakes and if all of these or any of these could play their due role, the possibility of free and fair elections was intact.
The participants also raised questions about the accountability, transparency and fairness within major political parties such as PML (N) and PPPP and need of increase public pressure over Musharraf regime for the conduct of transparent elections.