Democracy will survive in Pakistan: top ECP official

Essani, who is the senior-most official in Pakistan's Election Commission (ECP) as there is no Chief Election Commissioner there at present, is here to attend the 3rd conference of heads of election management bodies of SAARC countries.

When asked about the cynicism over complete restoration of democracy in Pakistan, which has seen long military rule, Essani claimed such doubts of undermining democracy in the country were unfounded.

"What I feel, there is complete democracy.... After Musharraf era...It is not so as it is being publicised. Democratic forces are working very much. Democratic process is working very much," he said.

He also said that the Election Commission had achieved more than half the points raised in its strategic 5-year plan unveiled last year. "During by-elections, we used electronic voting machines on trial basis," he said.

Pakistan EC's spokesman Mohammad Afzal Khan also claimed that Pakistan had the best voters civil registry in the world, with no case of impersonation and there being no possibility of fake voting.

"Aliens can now not enter our computerised voter database system.... However, we have recently removed almost 24 million bogus (unverified) voters ," he claimed.

The chief of Jamiat Ulema e Islam (F), Maulna Fazalur Rehman had in January this year alleged that there were 35 million bogus voters in the electoral lists and the same needed to be weeded out. PTI SKC

RT