Chief election commissioner of Pakistan Justice (retd) Qazi Farooq has said President Musharraf's addresses at public meetings are not proper.
“President Musharraf addressing public meetings is not an appropriate thing. I have already stated this," he said while talking to journalists after his meeting with an MMA delegation, which called on him here yesterday.
Political parties and civil society activists have been clamouring for past many years that Gen. Musharraf is violating that principle of impartiality of his office and his oath as army chief by addressing public rallies and presiding over meetings of ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), sometimes even in uniform.
Musharraf has been simply ignored these objections and the docile election commission kept discreet silence all along.
The CEC's statement, according to observers, is too late because the President has almost exhausted his schedule of rallies and recently told a meeting of PML MPs that they would be on their own when election schedule is announced and a caretaker government is put in place.
The CEC said the preparation of electoral rolls would be completed in three phases and all the objections would be removed. He said the Election Commission had set up 45,000 display centres so that voters omitted from the lists could be enlisted. The commission has
acknowledged that over 20 million voters who did not posses ID cards have been omitted from the lists.
“Door-to-door data was collected in the first phase, display centres were established in the second phase and all the voters would be included in the voters list in the third phase.”
He said a code of conduct would be evolved ahead of the elections and its implementation would be ensured. All the voters possessing national identity cards would be enlisted in the electoral lists.
The MMA delegation comprising MMA leaders Farid Paracha and Maulana Meraj was led by Liaquat Baloch. Liaquat also handed over a letter from MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad to the CEC.
Talking to the journalists earlier, MMA leader Liaquat Baloch said it was incumbent upon the ECP to demonstrate impartiality. “We are seriously concerned as to why 30 per cent voters have been omitted. Fair and transparent elections can be held with the help of computerised national identity cards,” he added.
Meanwhile, secretary Election Commission Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad has said the final voters’ list was likely to be displayed by the first week of September at more than 45,000 centres across the country.
However, missing voters would have the right to get themselves registered till the announcement of elections schedule, he told a TV network. Any missing voter might file an application along with a copy of his identity card to get himself registered within no time, he added.
Kanwar said data had been collected from more than 20 million houses in a door-to-door campaign, adding the data of almost every house was available with the ECP. He said both new and old identity cards would be valid in the elections as Nadra could not provide computerised ID cards to every citizen.
To a question, the secretary said the ECP was a fully autonomous body, which had to work under the prescribed rules and regulations.
