PPP demands barring intelligence agencies from election meddling

 

Islamabad December 26, 2006: Pakistan Peoples Party has welcomed the stance taken by the European Union that it could slap economic sanctions on Musharraf regime if the forthcoming elections were rigged.

 

A seven member delegation of the European Parliament led by MP Nina Gill during visit to Pakistan demanded that the elections 2007 should be held in a transparent manner, with complete schedule being announced well in advance enabling the EU monitors to survey the pre-election and post –election procedures carefully.

 

The EU delegation also demanded that the two former Prime Ministers Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif be allowed to take part in elections saying that if they were not allowed it would make the whole process of elections doubtful.

 

In a statement today spokesperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party said stealing of elections and manipulating power transfer by the agencies lay at the root of Pakistan’s political problems that had undermined the federation and alienated people from the state. The EU’s advice to hold free and fair elections should therefore be welcomed and not frowned upon by the regime as interference, he said.

 

The spokesperson said that EU’ timely warning should serve to remind how power transfer has been manipulated through an illegal referendum, rigging the 2002 elections, breaking of the mainstream political parties, banishing most popular leaders of the people that has culminated in insurgency in Balochistan and the Tribal areas and suicide attacks on the troops.

 

He said that the PPP had already prepared a twenty six point charter of demands for holding fair and free elections a foremost element of which is disbanding the political wing of the ISI and barring the intelligence agencies from meddling in elections.

 

He said that the involvement of officials of intelligence agencies in election manipulations should be declared a criminal offence and tried in civil courts. All election monitoring centres should be disbanded or as a minimum they should be open to scrutiny by the Election Commission, the observers and representatives of political parties.

He said that the EU’s call for ‘monitoring the pre-election and post –election procedures carefully’ was welcomed as it would help expose how the agencies steal the elections and make and unmake political parties and alliances.

The PPP hopes that that the call by the European Union would also encourage civil society, the media and leaders of public opinion to reject any election rigging and manipulated power transfer, he said.