ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: A consultative session of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the various media and civil society organizations was held in Islamabad on Monday to discuss aspects of code of conduct for political parties and candidates as well as code of conduct for media for general elections 2018.
The meeting presided over by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan was held here with an aim to cover the elections in an efficient and effective manner.
Addressing the session, the CEC said it was an opportunity to take the stakeholders on board and to have their input on how to make the level playing field more cogent and upto the nation’s expectations.
He said the main task of the commission was to hold a peaceful, fair and transparent election.
He said the commission has prepared draft Code of Conduct and proposed guidelines for media for elections 2018.
He said the meeting was called to seek suggestions from media persons before finalizing code of conduct.
He said the commission will ensure peaceful environment for voters to cast their votes.
He said the commission will fully train the polling staff for 2018 elections.
He said the ECP has stepped up efforts to maintain its credibility and impartiality.
He said media’s role was important to educate voters to come and cast their vote on election day.
He added the media has an important role to promote respect and tolerance in society during election days.
He said it was high time to educate voters properly though media on election process, casting of vote and registration of votes. He added the ECP will evolve a suitable mechanism for the implementation of media code of ethics.
All the participants expressed gratitude appreciating the effort to be very positive. A thread bear discussion was carried out para-wise on both codes of conduct and valuable suggestions were presented by the participants.
The participants stressed on the public awareness on civic and voters’ education and proposed that a debate on print and electronic media may be initiated on national issue of voters’ education.
It was also proposed that such consultative forums should be carried out for appropriate public awareness in future.
