I convey this with immense pleasure and pride that Election Commission of Pakistan is hosting the prestigious event of "Conference of the Election Management bodies of SAARC Member States" which is an honour, indeed. The conference will help to understand and guide the electoral management to hold free, fair and transparent elections.
The credibility of an EMB to hold free, fair and transparent election is dependent on general perception of the stakeholders and that is the area where we need to focus our attention. To achieve this target, we need to sit together and exchange views and experiences and for this purpose, this forum may help produce the desired results.
The capacity of an election management body to deliver effectively and efficiently plays key role in ultimate success of electoral process. Therefore, EMBs are required to be organised and structured in a way that enables them to meet all these and many other challenges. This led us to work on the idea of developing a comprehensive strategy that could guide the ECP to improve and reform its operational capabilities in a systematic and well organised manner. Accordingly, in late 2009, we were able to materialise the idea of formulating the first ever Strategic Plan (2010-2014) in over 50 years of the ECP's history, so far in which, several goals have been successfully achieved by the ECP. Thus, we assure the nation that the ECP will hold fair, transparent and credible elections in line with its Constitutional obligations and the nation's aspirations.