SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2309fair. Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League won a majority of seats and formeda government.Elections for local government bodies were held in Punjab in May 1998. Electionswere held in Baluchistan in March 1999 and a chairman was named in August.Elections have not been held in the two other provinces, NWFP and Sindh, since1993, when these bodies were dissolved by a caretaker government because of corruptioncharges. Local government elections were postponed indefinitely in theNWFP and Sindh. Sindh was under Governor’s rule from November 1998 until theOctober 1999 coup. In October 1999, Musharraf suspended the local and provincialgovernments; the provinces are ruled by governors appointed by General Musharraf.During the year, Musharraf focused on the perceived need to devolve power to thelocal level in order to reduce the power of the central Government. In March GeneralMusharraf presented his plan for devolution and political restructuring at thelocal level. According to this plan, non-party based local elections were scheduledto be held from December through August 2001. On December 31, there were electionsin 18 districts of the country. According to local and international election observers,the elections generally were free and fair. Religious minorities boycotted thepolls. Directly elected union councilors are to select a chief mayor and members ofdistrict council. Critics of the plan claim that it is merely an attempt to dissipatepressure for a return to democracy at the national level. On June 7, the Governmentannounced a number of measures designed to make the electoral commission independentof government control, including granting the commission full financial autonomy.Because of a longstanding territorial dispute with India, the political status of thenorthern areas—Hunza, Gilgit, and Baltistan—is not resolved. As a result, morethan 1 million inhabitants of the northern areas were not covered under the suspendedConstitution and have had no representation in the federal legislature. Anappointed civil servant administers these areas; an elected Northern Areas Councilserves only in an advisory capacity and has no authority to change laws or to raiseand spend revenue. In May 1999, the Supreme Court directed the Government toact within 6 months to give the northern areas an elected government with an independentjudiciary. In November 1999, the Musharraf regime permitted previouslyscheduled elections to take place in the northern areas; independents and candidatesfrom the PML, the PPP, and the Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan won seats.The right of citizens to change their government also has been hampered at theprovincial level by the Government’s failure to release the 1998 census figures andby the likely underestimation of the population of Sindh. Held after a delay of 7years, the national census was postponed repeatedly due to pressure from ethnicgroups and provincial officials who feared diminished representation and access tofederal funds. The 9.26 million census figure for Karachi, revised to 9.8 million ina February report, is estimated to be 3 to 5 million short of the actual figure.Although women participate in Government, and former prime minister BenazirBhutto is a prominent opposition figure, women are underrepresented in politicallife at all levels. Six women held seats in the 217-member National Assembly, upfrom 4 seats in the previous Parliament. Thirty-five women, more than ever before,campaigned for seats in the 1997 national elections. The Parliamentary Commissionon the Status of Women in Pakistan recommended reserving one-third of seats inall elected bodies for women. The Musharraf Government announced in August thatone-third of the seats in the upcoming local council elections would be reserved forfemale candidates; some political activists doubt that there would be enough femalecandidates in certain remote areas of the country to fulfill this requirement. Womenparticipate in large numbers in elections, although some are dissuaded from votingby family, religious, and social customs. In 1997 only 37 out of 6,600 female registeredvoters actually cast ballots in Jamrud in the Khyber Agency due to pronouncementsthat voting by women was un-Islamic. General Musharraf appointeda woman to his National Security Council and three women to his Cabinet. Provincialgovernors appointed by General Musharraf also have named women to serve inprovincial cabinets.Minorities are underrepresented in Government and politics. Under the electoralsystem, minorities vote for reserved at-large seats, not for nonminority candidateswho represent actual constituencies. The Musharraf regime abandoned a plan toabolish the separate electorate system due to pressure by some Muslim politicalgroups. With separate electorates, representatives have little incentive to promotetheir minority constituents’ interests. Many Christian activists state that separateelectorates are the greatest obstacle to the attainment of Christian religious andcivil liberties. Ahmadi leaders encourage their followers not to register as ‘‘non-Muslims,’’so most Ahmadis are completely unrepresented. In the National Assembly,Christians hold four reserved seats; Hindus and members of scheduled castes an-VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00153 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.036 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1