Qadri asks CEC to reject govt dictation

LAHORE
Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri has warned the election commission against what he called ignoring the political parties demanding election reforms from the consultation process, saying that it was giving strength to the notion that the coming elections would also be rigged like the 2013 elections.In a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC), Dr Qadri has asked him to reject the government dictation and should not restrict the consultations to the parties present in the parliament and call those parties outside the parliament. In his letter sent to the ECP by Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, Qadri said by not calling all the registered political parties the ECP would be demonstrating its step-motherly attitude and thus will not be fulfilling its constitutional obligations and legal requirements.
PAT chairman said the parties having representation in the parliament had a chance to frame laws and give their views on different laws that are presented before the parliament, but at the same time the parties that do not have any representation in the assemblies are left out of the law framing process and thus deprived of the constitutional right. He said some very powerful politicians within the assemblies just push their weight around and often block such laws from being framed that are against their interest and consultations with such politicians is a sheer waste of time and useless effort.
Dr Tahirul Qadri said that PAT was the first political party of the country which had and continued demanding reforms in the election process and formation of constitutional EC and for this it held a Long March and sit-in. He said that PAT had also approached the Supreme Court against the unlawful appointments in the Election Commission but the then Chief justice due to his political affiliations refused to hear our petition. He concluded by saying that the people in power did not want an independent and free election commission because if free, fair and independent elections were held their way to the parliament would be blocked forever.