Participation of citizens in the political process and, more specifically, electoral process of a country is extremely important for making democracy inclusive and functional. The State of Electoral Reforms in Pakistan is the 1st Quarterly Citizens

Monitoring Report on the Implementation of the ECP 5-Year Strategic Plan. The report covers the status as of December 31, 2011. The report is a manifestation of Pakistani citizens’ deep interest in reforming the electoral system of Pakistan so that the coming election is free, fair and credible. Fortunately, the electoral reforms in Pakistan are no more an abstract idea. There is a specific blue print and a road map for electoral reforms in the form of a 5-year Strategic Plan prepared by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the consultation and input of political parties and civil society organizations of Pakistan. It is rare for a public institution in Pakistan to develop such a road map and then take practical steps to implement it. The ECP deserves credit for undertaking such a serious exercise and remaining committed to implement it despite a number of challenges. While the ECP has the responsibility to implement the 5-year strategic plan, it is the responsibility of the citizens to monitor the progress of implementation and raise questions where the progress is slow or stalled. PILDAT firmly believes that citizens monitoring will not be an effort in finger-pointing rather it will be helpful to ECP in overcoming obstacles in the way of timely implementation. The Monitoring Report will further strengthen the transparency in ECP operations which has tremendously improved over the past couple of years. We also believe that this monitoring report will also further promote public dialogue on electoral reforms and bring public and the ECP closer. This report will be helpful in identifying the areas of weakness early on so that efforts may be focused on expediting the implementation in those areas. Eventually, we believe, this report, which we plan to compile quarterly, will contribute towards the timely implementation of the Strategic Plan. The percentage progress on each objective and goal given in the report has been carefully estimated by PILDAT based on the account of progress given by the ECP in its report placed in Appendix E. PILDAT will welcome any feedback regarding the estimates of percentage progress for incorporating in the next Quarterly Report.