Joke of The Day

ECP prepares draft proposals for free, fair and transparent polls

By Noor Aftab

June 12, 2016

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Monitoring, appointment of ECP members, enforcement, administrative powers,
revision of electoral rolls & functions of election staff members are in focus
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has prepared a six-point unified draft proposal that would be sent to the law and parliamentary affairs division to pave the way for legislation required to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in the country.
Talking exclusively to The News, ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob said the unified proposals for law had been prepared after a thorough review of the existing laws and these were focusing on monitoring, appointment of the ECP members, enforcement, administrative powers, revision of electoral rolls and functions of the election staff members.
He said they had held a number of brainstorming sessions during their meetings after which these draft proposals have been prepared, adding “They would send these draft proposals to the law and parliamentary affairs division that would take further measures to carry out legislation in the Parliament.’’
The ECP secretary said the election staff members must work under the ECP to remove confusion about various administrative measures so “We have included this issue in our draft proposals to ensure each and every person of the electoral staff works under the ECP.’’  It is pertinent to mention here that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has been accusing the judicial officers – who had served as district returning officers (DROs) and returning officers (ROs) in the May 2013 general elections – of playing a vital role in rigging the polls. One major objection raised by him was that the then chief justice of Pakistan had kept the ROs under his influence and addressed them on different occasions prior to the elections in the four provinces.
He said: “We need diversified experience among the ECP members so the restriction to appoint only retired high court judges on this post must be removed. When people from various fields will come to ECP then it will be better able to utilise their diversified experience."
Babar Yaqoob said they had also emphasised the need for comprehensive revision of the electoral rolls because it was necessary to ensure that only eligible and genuine voters cast their votes to elect the members for the national and provincial assemblies.
Dilating further upon their draft proposals he said monitoring was one of the important issues to ensure transparent elections so they looked forward for a comprehensive mechanism involving trained people to keep vigil over the electoral staff and their performance as well as the activities of the candidates in the context of code of conduct introduced in this regard.
Referring to voters education programme that would be launched by ECP in the coming months, he said it was really necessary to educate the voters because they must have the knowledge about what to do when they go to the polling stations. "When the voters will have complete knowledge about the process then they will cast their votes and fulfill other requirements in a befitting manner," he said.
Babar Yaqoob said they decided in principle that all those employees of the ECP who were working on their posts for more than three years would be transferred to other areas so hundreds of such employees would be transferred across the country in line with this decision.
He said they would transfer their employees from Chitral to Gwadar and also promote competent officials to prepare them for the task to hold free and fair elections in the country.
To a question, he said a recent report of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) stated that ECP had achieved its 61 percent of the goals and targets and was still moving in the direction to achieve remaining goals.
Replying to another question, he said they held several meetings to review the existing laws and now they had come to the conclusion that new law was needed to meet the growing challenges with regard to holding general elections in the country.
He said they had also separated the administrative wing from the training wing so both of these would now work separately that would definitely enhance their performance.
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