CA's speech clears the air

On the back of year-end change in the composition of the advisory council and a cabinet meet deciding to initiate dialogue with political parties, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, into the second year of his government, has elaborated a series of steps getting underway to set the nation firmly on course to general election.
He has made it emphatically clear that national election shall be held by December 2008, if not earlier. To that end, his government is seriously thinking of allowing indoor politics all over the country and gradually relaxing the state of emergency to create a congenial atmosphere for interaction within political parties. In conjunction with these steps, the government will initiate a dialogue with political parties. There have been consultations between the EC and political party representatives on electoral reform. Now, the dialogue prospects between the government and the political parties should be fully utilised for confidence building between both sides and addressing the issues of ensuring elections that are free from violence, terrorism and influence of black money.
The removal of fetters on political activities should accelerate the process of intra-party reforms for which an unwritten consensus is in existence among political parties themselves, let alone among the general people. The dialogue between the government and political parties is a practical necessity that could not be given a short shrift. The qualitative aspect of the forthcoming elections has acquired great significance in view of the rising public expectation to see the general election produce a government and an opposition comprising clean, honest and competent persons.
The reactions of the political parties to the CA's address have been positive. That gives us hope that political leaders would cooperate with the government and the EC in their efforts to hold free, fair and credible elections by December 2008. We cannot lose sight of the facts that an election not participated by all parties cannot be credible and that there is a lot of ground to be covered for the election to be held on schedule. We are just getting into the substantive part -- the job is cut out for all concerned.