While political parties arc questioning the code of conduct of Election Commission of Pakistan, the President and the current administration in conducting free and fair election here comes Election Commission of Pakistan announcing the draft Code of Conduct for political parties for the upcoming elections, without any pre-consultation with true stakeholders - the political parties. Why it was not discussed with political parties before and why just eight days were given to respond to it is simply incomprehensible.

In all democracies the shared code of ethical conduct sets out the guiding principles and practices that establish the framework for ethical conduct expected of not only political parties but all participants in the political process. If the Army is part of the political dispensation with its chief being the president, do we need their role be defined in code of ethics document? Does Election Commission of Pakistan have a spine to induce at the very least their oath as soldiers in the text of the document?

The shared code of ethical conduct is usually based upon a deep and enduring respect for the democratic process and compliance with election laws that codify the rules for elections and campaigning. Let's give the credit where its due: the most comprehensive election laws including the guidelines for the framework of code of ethics was prepared anti approved by the parliament by Zulfiqar Al Bhutto's democratic administration. This comprehensive document is known as representation of the People Act 19th. This document is supposed to be the guiding principle for all the elections of Pakistan. The current administration of Election Commission of Pakistan uses the same Act hut picks and chooses what suits current administration of Election Commission of conduct released by ECP for 2002 elections had 22 points but the latest draft release has 17 more. A comparative analysis will reveal the gems inserted so that violation or disqualifications should be easy subject to interpretation of ECP.

Consider few interesting items. "Parties and politicians shall refrain from making references to secret and confidential matters, which were within their official knowledge when they were in power." I have read the code of conduct documents of about dozens of countries, but this one beats all. What secret and confidential matters we are talking about? How does one define what is secret and confidential? Similarly, Item 9 under general conduct says "political parties and contesting candidates shall not refrain from making such comments on international issues as are likely to embarrass the government's relations with other countries, nor shall they say anything or do any act in any manner, which might prejudice Pakistan's foreign relations. Controversial or harsh remarks about leaders of other countries and their ideologies shall he avoided." ECP is so naïve that it does not understand that the nucleus of any election campaign is the criticism of foreign policies of the regime. How can an election campaign run without dissecting the success and failure of this regime's 'war of terrorism' specific foreign policy?

Nevertheless, there are some good points in code of ethics, though mostly taken out from Representation of the People Act 1976, but again the most important question is how to enforce those in absence of implementation mechanisms. For example, item 17 prohibits Ministers to combine their official visits with election campaign and item 18 prohibits the political parties and contesting candidates to procure support or assistance of any civil servant to promote or hinder the election of candidate. President, Prime Minister and Federal and State Ministers' visits organized by DCOs and district governments are clear-cut violation of this code. Just the other day, the Prime Minister accompanied by the ruling party chief and a flock of Ministers and other government officials went to Pir Pagara' house to cob a political arrangement with PML (Pagara group) and MQM. Similarly, daily barrage of electronic and print media ads by Government of Punjab with super-imposing chief minister's snapshots, paid by taxpayers money also defy the code of ethics. Once the final code of ethics is issued and the prevailing practices of the current regime still do not die down, how will ECP enforce it? Historical facts paint a dismal picture of past performance of ECP in conducting impartial, free and fair general elections. The soul of Pakistan has still scars of our notorious intelligence agencies putting together what was bhan mati ki kunba - the infamous Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJT) using public money. Why ECP remains silent then, and how it mitigates the same risk in forth coming general elections still remains to be seen!

While debate still rages on the demand of political parties to at least suspend, if not dismiss district governments, ECP should have included a code of conduct for the district governments as well. It talks about politicians contesting elections, ministers in executive administration and government bureaucrats buy does not touch upon the role of district governments. General elections 2008 has a great potential to be influenced by district governments thereby indicating the need to develop a code of conduct for the district governments.

In order to restore democratic order in Pakistan and to promote free, fair and credible elections, it is crucial that equality of access to political opportunities for all political parties be guaranteed by providing a level-playing field. An in-depth analysis of the code of restrictions, a more of bureaucratic labyrinth, an incomplete document which is silent on the enforcement mechanism and penalties.