Keep Pakistan vote 'rancour-free'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/7061302.stm

Version 0 of 1.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has asked political parties to desist from criticising the army or the judiciary ahead of assembly elections.

The polls are likely to be held in January and the commission says it wants them to be rancour-free.

A draft code of conduct, issued on Wednesday, also prohibits remarks against the "ideology of Pakistan".

The political parties have been given until 3 November to consider the draft and suggest improvements.

Free to criticise

"These elections are important because the entire world will be watching us," the Election Commission Secretary, Kunwar Mohammad Dilshad, said at a press briefing in Islamabad on Wednesday.

In recent years, the role of the military in political affairs has attracted increasing criticism from politicians and civil society activists.

Gen Musharraf's presidential win has still to be confirmed

The role of the judiciary has also been marred by controversy since the Supreme Court allowed the country's military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, to contest presidential elections earlier this month.

A recent movement by lawyers and their supporters on the street has challenged Gen Musharraf's eligibility on the grounds that it is against the law for public servants to hold political office until two years after retirement.

The Supreme Court is now hearing a case to decide if Gen Musharraf was eligible to stand for the election in the first place.

The growing influence of armed militants in the north-western parts of the country and suicide bombings are adding to general unrest.

Mr Dilshad said that, according to the draft, candidates in the parliamentary elections would be free to criticise each other within moral limits and without discussing private lives of their rivals.

Candidates would not be allowed to hold public meetings in front of the residences of their rival candidates.

Under the code, no public money could be used to advertise political campaigns on official or private media.

When it was pointed out that the ruling party was already conducting such campaigns in the electronic media, Mr Dilshad said action against violators could only be taken only after the code has been finalised and enforced.