Code of conduct to be framed, Opp fears curbs on campaigning

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government on Saturday said a code of conduct would be framed for the upcoming general election in the wake of the suicide attack on former premier Benazir Bhutto's convoy even as opposition parties warned it against imposing restrictions on political activities.
      
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government would draw up a code of conduct for the election, which is due by mid-January, in consultation with all political parties.
      
"From today, we are starting making contacts with all political parties to devise a code of conduct for the electoral process along with the Election Commission in order to ensure smooth running of political activity," Aziz said after attending a function at the Prime Minister's Secretariat.
      
Aziz's comments came a day after Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the head of the ruling PML-Q, asked the prime minister to ban political rallies during the election campaign and allow public meetings only at designated places in view of the threat of suicide bombings.
      
A suicide bomber blew himself up near Bhutto's motorcade in Karachi on Friday, killing nearly 140 people and injuring hundreds more.
     
Opposition parties, including Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami reacted angrily to Hussain's suggestion, saying the government should focus on maintaining law and order and countering terrorism instead of restricting political activities.

    
PPP spokesperson Sherry Rehman said in Karachi that it was the government's responsibility to provide protection to political parties and it should not prevent the people from joining political activities.
     
Pakistani media has also expressed similar apprehensions with leading daily Dawn saying government "should make no attempt to use the terrorism threat, genuine though it is, to curtail the freedoms associated with campaigning" in "what obviously will be a very hard-fought election".
     
Reacting to the Opposition's concerns, Aziz said the proposed code of conduct would not affect the poll process or interaction between candidates and voters. "The situation will be handled keeping all the various security concerns in mind. I do not see the electoral process or public-candidate interaction being hindered because of (the code)," he said.
     
Asked if there was any move to ban political rallies in the wake of the Karachi blasts, Aziz said political parties should adopt alternative secure modes of campaigning such as using the media to communicate with the public.
     
"We'll have to perhaps change our tactics a little bit and we will have to take the necessary precautions so that we don't allow those elements who want to disrupt or delay or create challenges in the political process to be successful.
    
"We owe it to our people to continue our march towards democracy and to have free and fair elections," he said adding an 'effective and well-managed' poll process is needed for a stronger Pakistan.
    
The country also needs an "environment which will promote and foster democracy and allow every party to take their message to the people", Aziz said.
   
President Pervez Musharraf and Aziz have both said that a neutral caretaker government will be formed after the term of the national and provincial assemblies ends on November 15 to supervise the holding of a free and impartial general election.
   
But legal challenges in the Supreme Court to Musharraf's re-election in uniform in the October 6 presidential poll as well as to the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance that granted Bhutto amnesty in graft cases and allowed her to return from self-exile have cast a shadow over the poll expected to be held by January.
     
Aziz said the government was trying to create an environment of political reconciliation that would allow every party to express its views freely.
    
"May it be an all-parties conference or individual contacts, the basic objective is to let political activity continue without any hindrance," he said.
    
Senior police officials from the four provinces of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan would prepare a security plan for the upcoming election, he said.