EU calls for transparent general elections in 2007

ISLAMABAD—Head of operations delegation of the European Michael Dale has said that European Union and its member countries are very keen that general election 2007 in Pakistan are held in a fair and transparent manner.
He stated this while addressing a seminar held on “Role of Media in Democracy and Electoral Process” on Wednesday and Member National Assemby and Executive Director Parliamentarian Commission for Human Rights Kashmala Tariq, secretary election commission Kanwar Dilshad and chairman PEMRA Iftikhar Rasheed also addressed the seminar. Michael Dale said that however, democracy in Pakistan had flourished for the last five years but EU and its member countries wanted to see the democratic institutions strengthened in Pakistan and sought Pakistan to hold the general election 2007 in a very transparent and fair and free manner.
He said that EU would monitor the general election 2007 like the local government election 2005 and would provide all possible help and assistance in this regard. He said that EU had launched small projects in Pakistan to strengthen the democracy and continue its support in future to enhance the capacity building and role of democratic institutions and gave training.
He said that accountability should be accounted for carrying forward the democratic process and even the President and Prime Minister were not out of it to strengthen the democratic institutions. He further said that media in Pakistan had enjoyed the freedom for the last few years and its role was important in raising awareness among the masses about democracy and it should play its pivotal role to table the critical issues relating to democracy.
He also urged media to raise the awareness about the women’s role in politics and said that their participation should be ensure in politics as they could be of vital importance for the strengthening of democratic institutions. Member National Assembly and Executive Director Parliamentarian Commission Kashmala Tariq said that electronic and print media was important in the society and issues pertaining to human rights should be covered along with flashing the matters of democracy, supremacy of Parliament.
She said that although the corporate sector was running the newspapers, agencies, and commercialism had place in the media and, however, the media should strike a balance in tabling the issues before the masses. She said that the initiatives should be taken to strengthen the parliament and democratic institutions instead of being engaged in practice of criticism and media could play an important role in this regard. She said that gender balance should be developed in media and added that number of male reporters surpassed the female reporters and opportunities should be created to adjust the female reporters.—Online