Caretaker govt to ensure free, fair elections: Ali Zafar

0
180

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Syed Ali Zafar Thursday said that the caretaker government would do its utmost to ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful general elections.

In an interview with Pakistan Television (PTV), he said that there were concerns that elections could be delayed over election forms, delimitation of constituencies and issues due to FATA reforms. However, the elections would not be delayed over these legal issues as these would be settled, he added.

The minister said that the Supreme Court solved the issue by ordering that an affidavit would be added to the nomination forms. This removed objections of the Election Commission as well as the candidates.

Ali Zafar said delimitation of constituencies was necessary as the constituencies should be compact and not in the shape of islands. There were some mistakes in the delimitation of constituencies which needed to be rectified, he added.

Talking about security in elections, he said armed forces and other security forces would fulfil their constitutional obligations if the need arose. He added that all the political parties would be given level playing field to run their campaign in the elections.

He said that power load shedding was an issue and all the information would be taken from the Ministry of Water and Power and facts and figures would be put before the public.

The cabinet extensively discussed the issue of the economy, he said adding, “Our economy has a lot of potentials and we can go a long way.”

The minister said a judgment about fair polls could be made when the elections were over. “At the end, we want that our conduct of elections should be appreciated.”