81 million voters “enabled”

Pakistani officials keep telling us that all is rosy for the upcoming elections.  The Election Commission of Pakistan, which is overseeing procedure on February 18th, has announced that it will “enable” around 81 million to vote.  While the Punjab province President of the PML (Q) pro-Musharraf party spoke on Tuesday about reforms, which mean that there is “no chance of rigging the elections”.

Not everyone’s convinced. Wajid Shamsul Hassan, the PPP’s UK spokesman, wrote a complaining letter which was published in the Guardian on Tuesday, pointing out that only recently

“Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth for breaking democratic norms.” 

Like Wajid Shamsul Hassan, Imran Khan’s UK representative, Shahid Dastgir Khan, has been critical of British Government support for Musharraf, saying that Brown’s policy in this matter was “seriously flawed.” Neither he nor Shamsul Hasan considers the Pakistani media to be operating in a free environment. Dastgir Khan highlighted the 78-day blackout of GEO TV.