SAARC agrees to form permanent cooperation

ISLAMABAD: South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Election Management Bodies (EMBs) here on Friday agreed to establish a permanent forum to foster cooperation and sharing electoral experience among the member states.

A charter was also approved through adopting a resolution which would be circulated among the Member States for the acceptance for onward transmission to the Secretary General, SAARC Secretariat, Kathmandu, Nepal for approval by SAARC Summit as per procedure.

This was stated by Secretary Election Commission, Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan while briefing media at the end of a two-day Conference of Election Management Bodies of SAARC Member States here.

Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan said that six Chief Election Commissioners and two representatives of the Member States attended this conference.

He said the objective of this conference was to enhance cooperation among election commissions of all the SAARC countries.

The representatives of all the election commissions, during the conference, shared their efforts and experiences in holding free and fair elections, he added.

He said a booklet containing discussions and the papers presented at the conference, would be published.

The Secretary said that all the Election Commissioners especially, the Chief Election Commissioner of India appreciated the strategic plan envisaged by Election Commission of Pakistan.

Responding to a question he said, the Election Commission was striving to prepare a comprehensive computerized electoral rolls in a bid to ensure free and fair election in the country.

He said it was also decided to hold such conferences every year and informed that the next conference would be held in New Delhi.

Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan said that it was decided not to setup a formal secretariat for holding of conferences rather the election commission of the host country would make all the arrangements in this regard.

About role of independent observers during elections, he said some countries were in favour of election observers while some opposed their role for the endorsement of election.

He said that role of donors agencies was also discussed during the conference.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011