Islamabad: A Pakistani think tank, in its report, termed the pre-poll process in the country highly unfair, giving it a score of 26 on a scale of 100.

The Citizens Group on Electoral Process (CGEP), working under Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development (PILDAT), and comprising prominent, non-partisan and generally respected national figures coming from diverse backgrounds, considered independence of judiciary and the effectiveness and credibility of the Election Commission as the two most important parameters to judge the fairness of the pre-poll process.

Assessing the overall fairness of the pre-poll environment, spanning over 12 months, the group gave it a poor score of 26 on a scale of 100.

It also observed that the score was indicative of the fact that pre-poll phase had been unfair to a large degree and the prospects of entire electoral exercise to carry some credibility were extremely low, the Nation reported today.

The next crucial ingredient, in the eyes of the CGEP, has been the neutrality of the president and governors, followed by the neutrality of the caretaker and local governments, freedom of private media, maintenance of law and order and credibility of electoral rolls.

According to the report, neutrality of the president and governors received the lowest score - 14 on a scale of 100, indicating that this was the most damaging factor for the credibility of the electoral process.

Neutrality of the local governments and the effectiveness or credibility of the Election Commission were the two parameters which received the next lowest scores, 15 and 17 respectively on a scale of 100.

Other parameters receiving some of the lowest scores were neutrality of the caretaker governments (21) and the independence of the judiciary (22).

Source : UNI