Faisalabad: November 9, 2010. (PCP) On 4th November 2010, Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) organized a seminar on the theme “Expectations of Public from Democratic System in Pakistan” in collaboration with Peace and Human Development (PHD), Women’s Organization for Reform and Development (WORD) and Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD). This seminar was held at Catholic Church, Tandlianwala in Faisalabad District and was joined by 108 Muslim and Christian participants. The speakers of the seminar included: Nazia Sardar, Shazia George, Suneel Malik (Executive Secretary-Peace and Human Development-PHD), Zafar Iqbal and Babu Asghar. Nazia Sardar said, “The culture of democracy has not prevailed due to the long tenure of dictatorship in place of democracy in the political history of Pakistan.” “The benefits of democracy can automatically reach to the public and a civilized society can be created if the journey of democracy continues in Pakistan without suspension,” she added. Suneel Malik said, “In democratic system, the duty of the legislatures is to address the problems of public on the floor of the parliament and to introduce legislation for the defense of rights of people, but politicians consider securing benefits of their party heads and criticizing political opponents, their primary responsibility rather than taking effective measures in order to resolve the public problems like poverty, inflation, unemployment, lawlessness and access to justice.” Shazia George said, “The exploitation of the human rights of the public will continue unless power is shifted from the hands of corrupt politicians, landlords, industrialists and bureaucrats to the real representatives of poor citizens.” “The traditional rulers have tried to secure their power and interests in the name of welfare of public through approving 18th amendment in the constitution; even they have approved a constitutional amendment regarding choosing party heads for lifetime without conducting elections within the political parties, which is contrary to the democratic principles, standards and practices,” she added. Zafar Iqbal said, “Government has failed to meet the expectations of public from the democratic system, because basic necessities have gone beyond the access of poor citizens.” “The murder of lower middle and poor class as a result of inflation is for sure if prices of food items, energy, gas and petroleum products are not lessen keeping in view the income of general public,” he added. The speakers for the stability of democratic system in Pakistan demanded that: government must control price hike and must impose wealth tax on politicians, bureaucrats, landlords and industrialists in order to alleviate the poverty and inflation by providing subsides on utilities, petroleum products and food items; all political parties in opposition should avoid demanding mid term elections, but must cooperate with government to deal with the crises in the greatest interests of Pakistan; all political parties must join hands despite their differences and concerns for the continuation of democratic political set up, and must adopt the policy of unanimity and reconciliation to remove trust deficit and to maintain the sense of trust among all democratic forces; government must improve its performance and credibility by withdrawing its support towards corrupt elements and by taking strict action against all influential people and institutions, and must increase the national reserves by recovering money from the possession of corrupt elements; government must take effective measures for providing relief to the people against congo virus and dengue fever; government must promote culture of merit system by appointing eligible candidates rather than ineligible candidates following the lawful means on all post in the state institutions; government must take legal action against the parliamentarians resorting fake graduation degree for ensuring their access to the legislative assembly; government must hold local bodies elections on party basis in order to ensure benefits of democracy accessible at grassroots; government must enforce agriculture reforms in order to mitigate class division, and legislation must be introduced to make the accountability process effective and transparent.