=> * Says Pemra Ordinance amendments, code of conduct
* Says Pemra Ordinance amendments, code of conduct are clear signal expression stifled, information under state-control
LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged election monitoring bodies and observers, domestic and international, to take note of the events leading up to the elections, and not confine their findings to the polling day alone. The HRCP said it had been following all developments leading up to the January 8 polling day and pre-election rigging was evident.
In a press release issued here on Monday, the HRCP said prospects of change – which ought to be the real objective of the elections – had largely faded with the manipulated election of the president. Acts of omission and commission by the government machinery, including the Election Commission (EC), give credence to political partieses’ allegations that the upcoming elections were being unashamedly manipulated, the statement said.
Elaborating on some pre-rigging modalities, the HRCP alleged that caretaker ministers are openly campaigning for their relatives and friends contesting the elections, government funds and machinery are being employed by political parties close to the Musharraf regime to garner votes, and large-scale transfers of judicial and administrative officers have taken place under the nose of the EC.
The HRCP statement said there has been no attempt by the commission challenge or stop these transfers and, moreover, its failure to restrain nazims from using their influence and the resources entrusted to them proved that they were all in league.
It also brought up the issue of the lack of time the election schedule afforded political parties to organise their own cadres, to prepare their campaigns and the electorate. The nomination papers of top opposition party leaders had been rejected, it added. The HRCP statement, hence, concluded that the whole process held no promise of any kind of transition to democracy. On the contrary, the statement said, the elections were being used to throw a blanket over critical issues affecting the fundamental rights of the citizenry, including the ruin of the country’s judicial system.
‘Expression stifled, info state-controlled’: Commenting on press freedom, the HRCP said that most private television channels had been permitted to resume their transmissions, but only after agreeing to intolerable censorship laws. Amendments to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Ordinance and the new code of conduct devised for the media were clear signals that expression would remain stifled and the state would exercise control over what information people can access, the statement said.
Elaborating on the attack on the judiciary and citizenry, the HRCP statement said sacked judges, including the former chief justice of the country along with his family, remain confined. Bar association leaders were not only under detention, they were also being subjected to humiliating treatment when released for a few hours. The Constitution had been amended arbitrarily. Amendments to the Army Act and the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act still remained in force. And, violence is being used routinely against citizens protesting against the attack on the judiciary and the usurpation of their rights.
Therefore, the HRCP said, elections held under such oppressive conditions could never be accepted as being as free, fair or transparent.
It was apparent that the elections had been designed to perpetuate the military regime rather than to seek a peaceful transition to democracy, said the statement.
The HRCP asked local and international observers to take note of pre-rigging and monitor and document incidents of malpractice on polling day — pointing out that this assumes particular significance in the absence of a credible judiciary and a media restrained from freely reporting facts.
The statement said the HRCP will vigilantly take note of all complaints filed with the EC, the polling results of prisoners, the secrecy surrounding votes cast by government employees, the transparency of postal ballots and the returns received from Pakistani missions abroad. The HRCP will also keep an eye on any restraints or hurdles imposed on the voting rights of women and forced labour, it said.
Source: Daily Times
Date:12/25/2007
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