Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-25-Speech-4-232"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20071025.31.4-232"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, as Pakistan prepares for important parliamentary elections, the situation is, as we all know, very difficult and preoccupying, and I, also, like many of you, have to express that I was deeply shocked by the heinous bomb attack and assassination attempt in Karachi, when Ms Benazir Bhutto returned to the country last week, and also by the terrible loss of life, which has affected so many innocent people. We would like to extend our full sympathy to the families of the victims, and we also appeal to the Pakistani authorities to bring those responsible to justice.
This attack on a peaceful gathering has clearly demonstrated, once again, all the dangers of terrorism and fundamentalism to the people of Pakistan. Ms Bhutto was right in describing this horrible event as a blow against democracy, particularly in the present electoral context of the country.
Parliament’s wish to express solidarity with the people of Pakistan is both very relevant and timely. We in Europe should encourage a more open, democratic society and, of course, a strong civil society in Pakistan.
It is also of fundamental importance that the elections should then provide maximum democratic legitimacy to the incoming assemblies, and the vote must be democratic, transparent and giving equal opportunities to all the political contestants.
As you are well aware, it is one of those countries where we might envisage a possible election observation mission. In this context, my services carried out an exploratory mission in June, and they identified, I have to say, important shortcomings in the framework and the conditions for elections, including concerns about the independence of the Election Commission, the completeness and the accuracy of the voter register, restrictive candidature provisions, as well as lack of transparency in the results process.
However, with urgent political will, there is still time to improve a number of these problematic areas and, therefore, I have not yet taken a full decision on whether we will deploy a fully-fledged election observation mission. I really have to see the aforementioned elements.
I believe that the majority of people in Pakistan would like to see a moderate, stable and democratic Pakistan, and we should support them in achieving this aim. We are doing a lot, for instance, on the trade side, in order to help people to get out of poverty, but we also do a lot on the education side, in order not to have pupils and young children being educated in the madrasahs and being educated towards extremism and fundamentalism. But we should also support this because it is of crucial importance, as has been said, for the whole region, including neighbouring countries like important Afghanistan.
Therefore, we have every reason to stay engaged. This is what we are trying to do and, therefore, this debate is a very timely one."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples