Under the law of mutation we may change the system of vote casting. Nothing has changed for the common man. Even the bar at law or the 1973 constitution could not save an elected prime minister from being hanged though he had not been proved guilty. This was due to a weak political system.

We have so many political parties. Voters in so many constituencies do not cast their vote due to fear. They choose to stay back and that does not reflect the true picture of representation of the people in assemblies.

Can the Election Commission print a ballot paper with symbols representing all the registered political parties and ask the citizens to cast their vote according to their will in their areas? Can then the results be announced on party basis?

Total votes should be distributed by the number of candidates required for the assemblies and then the Election Commission should allocate the number of seats for political parties on pro-rata basis.

This way the EC will save expenses and the assemblies will reflect the true representation of political parties. No turncoats as independent candidates will go to assembly. No representative in the assemblies will change loyalty.

In case of death of a candidate no by elections will be required as the political party that has the representation in the assembly could only send its new nominee in the assembly.

This will be based only on the sincerity of the political parties.

Citizens will have confidence and will vote for the political party as per choice. All small groups will be eliminated due to this system and will join major political parties. Once the system sustains, non-performers in assemblies will also be eliminated with the passage of time.

SAJJAD ZAHEER TANOLI Karachi

Transparency needed With reference to the functions and constitutional definition of the Election Commission Pakistan, as mentioned in the constitution of Pakistan in Article 2391 in Chapter 1:

“It shall be the duty of the election commission constituted in relation to an election to organise and conduct the election and to make such arrangements as are necessary to ensure that the election is conducted honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law and that corrupt practices are guarded against.”

I am a resident of Defence Phase V, Karachi. Recently three people came to my house as representatives of the Election Commission for the purpose of voter lists’ verification process. They gave me a form that had to be filled with the names, CNIC numbers and dates of birth of my registered family voters.

It is pertinent to mention here that the verification form consisted of two sections, in which the first section was to be filled by the residents with the above-mentioned particulars, and the other section was to be filled by ECP representatives for complete verification purposes of existing voter lists.

I filled my respective section very carefully and returned the form so that the rest could be filled by ECP representatives. I was literally shocked to see that they were using simple pencils with easily erasable text to fill the specified data of verification in the other section specific for ECP representatives.

How could they fill an official document by simply using a pencil? Being a citizen of Karachi, I strictly condemn the process of voter verification. I protest against this suspicious procedure.

The Election Commission of Pakistan is an independently democratic institution by the constitution of Pakistan. It was expected that this turn of verification would be carried out fairly but unfortunately it seems that some higher authorities do not want the sustainable public trust on democratic institutions.

Corrective measures are required to be taken forthwith by the Election Commission of Pakistan to ensure that controversial voter lists’ disputes are resolved at the earliest.

SAAD ABDUL WAHAB Karachi