This Democracy Monitor by PILDAT records developments impacting the quality of democracy in Pakistan during May 01 � August 06, 2012.

Pakistan, U.S. sign new MoU

On July 31, Pakistan and United States finally signed a Memorandum of Understanding over the supply of cargo to and from Afghanistan,^[1] establishing �principles and procedures for the quick and efficient transit of U.S. cargo to and from Afghanistan through the territory of Pakistan for the purpose of supporting international efforts for ensuring the security, stabilization, and reconstruction of Afghanistan.�

That finally both the countries signed a written MoU respecting Pakistan�s Parliamentary decision to do so must be lauded. It is also a welcome departure from the secretive way the relationship was handled between the two countries earlier. It was however odd to see the decision to open Ground Lines of Communications (GLOCs) implemented before the MOU was formally signed.

Earlier, in April 2012, Pakistan�s Parliament had unanimously passed a resolution, based on recommendations by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, guiding the elected Government on how to conduct relations with the US.

The MoU, however, does not entirely correspond to the Parliamentary resolution. It may however be kept in mind that while it is Parliament�s job to reflect and convey the public opinion, policy making in a democracy remains the prerogative and responsibility of the elected executive.

While Parliamentary guidelines asked the executive that Pakistan�s �air space shall not be used for transportation of arms and ammunition to Afghanistan,� the MoU prohibits transport of arms and ammunition for NATO/ISAF, but it allows shipments of lethal cargo for the Afghan Armed Forces.

Even though Parliament�s resolution avoided giving any quantifiable figure on costs, it nevertheless asked the international community to �recognize Pakistan�s colossal human and economic losses.� There have been reports that Pakistan was negotiating with the US to increase the container fee from the existing fee US $ 250 or at least compensate damages to the highways caused by the movement of the trucks. At one time increase in the container fee appeared as one of the main deadlocks in re-opening the Ground Lines of Communications (GLOCs).^[2] The MoU, however, clearly mentions that no new taxes or duties have been imposed on the cargo and only commercial carriers will have to pay a fee.

Many analysts tend to believe that Parliament need not have been as prescriptive in its recommendations as it was on issues such as the drone attacks and the civil nuclear deal, etc. It is, however, the prime responsibility of the elected public representatives to represent public opinion and Parliament was well within its jurisdictions to forward policy advice to the executive. In fact, the pro-active role of Parliament and its Parliamentary Committee on National Security has broken a mould in which Parliament played an almost non-existent role in influencing foreign policy of the country.

Is it then the failure of the elected Executive to negotiate terms of re-engagement with the US in keeping with the public sentiment reflected by the Parliament? There can both be pragmatic and ideal answers to that.

The fine points involved in the delicate relations of the two countries may not be in the knowledge of general public or even the Parliament and only the senior most elected leadership and civil and military bureaucracy may be privy to these details. It is therefore both the privilege and the responsibility of the elected executive to take policy decisions which sometime may run contrary to popular sentiment and the elected government has to pay the price for an unpopular decision which it may consider right under the circumstances.

New Voters List

The Election Commission of Pakistan finally announced the completion of the Final Electoral Rolls (FERs) on July 31, after a delay of 7 months.^[3]

Despite the delay, however, it is for the first time that Pakistan has a computerized Electoral Roll based on the citizenship record of NADRA. A total of 84.36 million CNIC holder citizens of Pakistan are registered as voters.

According to NADRA, 96% of the adult population of Pakistan has been issued CNICs and they form a part of the Final Electoral Rolls (FERs). The Rolls do not have any multiple entries of the same person and one person�s vote is only registered at one place. No person can vote without an original CNIC which, in a major way will take care of the issue of bogus voting.

It is also for the first time that the Electoral Rolls carry picture of each voter which will take care of a major bottleneck and a perpetual controversy of Voter Identification especially at the women�s polling stations although a significant limitation is that a large number of women do not provide their pictures and hence their identification on the polling day will remain a challenge.

The FERs have been prepared after cleaning the 2008 Electoral Rolls of all unverified entries. Since the Supreme Court had ordered in 2007 that voters should be entered in the Rolls on the basis of any identification (old NICs, Passport, even Ration Cards), when NADRA verified the Electoral Roll 2007, it found that out of total 81.2 million voters registered in 2007, only 44.02 could be verified against NADRA database of CNICs. This, however, did NOT mean that 37 million voters were bogus or fake. It just meant that they were not registered against their CNICs. After the Verification Process, based on CNICs, NADRA has added 36.68 million voters which roughly match the number that was unverified.

Consequently, following is the break-up of Voters by region in the FERs 2007 and 2012:^[5]

Compared to the Electoral Rolls of 2007, the Final Electoral Rolls 2012 indicate significant variations. While the number of voters in FATA, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab have registered an increase of 31 %, 12 % and 8 % respectively, the number of voters in Sindh and Balochistan provinces have registered a decline of 7 % and 22 % respectively. Although 2007 Electoral Rolls are a rather weak reference to compare 2012 Electoral Rolls with, there are bound to be questions about these variations. It is important that the ECP should make the 2012 Electoral Rolls widely and easily available for the scrutiny of political parties, civil society and media. This transparency will help in establishing the credibility of the FERs 2012 and in improving their accuracy if there are flaws.

It is important that constituency-wise and complete electoral rolls should be made available to political parties, civil society organizations and all concerned so that the list could be verified and flaws, if any, could be identified in time for rectification by the ECP. It is only at that stage that the need or otherwise of a third-party validation of the electoral rolls could be decided about.

PILDAT has demanded that Final Electoral Rolls (FERs) should be made available at the ECP website, and for a nominal fee, available in the form of CDs

The ECP together with the NADRA should institute a system whereby future voter registration is automatically carried out at the time of issuance of CNICs by NADRA. Provision for extra information such as the preferred location for voting may be instituted at the time of registration for CNICs.

The NADRA should also be directed to ensure issuing CNIC to all eligible voters in Pakistan within a period of next six months.

New CEC!

From April to June 2012, delay by the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and Members of the Election Commission of Pakistan^[6] in agreeing on the appointment of the new Chief Election Commissioner remained another cause of concern although one can understand this delay given the fact that working relationship between the PPP, the ruling party in the centre and PML-N, the main opposition party became further strained after the Supreme Court convicted the former Prime Minister on April 26, 2012 and the opposition refused to recognise Mr. Yusuf Raza Gilani as the legitimate Prime Minister of Pakistan and therefore refused to engage in any consultation with him on the appointment of the new CEC.

It is also understandable that it was the first time in the history of Pakistan that a CEC was being appointed through a bi-partisan process; developing consensus was not easy on such a high-stakes issue.

The Parliamentary committee finally agreed on the name of Honourable Justice (Retd.) Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim as the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan on July 9, 2012. The appointment of Justice (Retd.) Ibrahim was notified as the CEC on July 13, 2012.

Inexplicably, however, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, instead of administering oath to the new CEC on the same day, reportedly set the date of administration of oath for July 20, a week after his official notification. Eventually, the new Chief Election Commissioner was administered oath on July 23, 2012, 10 days after his official notification.

It is also worth noting that the outgoing Chief Election Commissioner completed his term on March 23, 2012. Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Judge of the Supreme Court, occupied the office of the Acting CEC in the interim period of about 4 months.

It is highly commendable that the parliamentary opposition led by PML-N consulted some of the significant parties which do not have a presence in the Parliament such as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jama�at-e-Islami in an effort to develop a wider consensus on the name of the CEC although the constitution did not make such consultations mandatory. While the appointment of Justice (Retired) Ibrahim was widely hailed by various political parties, his age (84 years) did raise the question among some quarters about his ability to withstand the stresses of the highly strenuous position of the CEC.

Supreme Court Verdict on Election Expenses ventures into Policy domains

In Constitution Petition No. 87 of 2011 (Workers Party Pakistan v. Federation of Pakistan, etc.) the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a judgment on June 8, 2012 upholding the legal provisions of expense limit for candidates for the National and Provincial Assemblies elections.

The very prescriptive judgment related to the regulations of election campaign expenses, issuing of perchies (paper slips) to voters, setting up polling stations, camps near polling stations, etc. The judgment prescribed to the ECP on what the Declaration Form should include in a candidate accounting for all the expenses after the election is over; that the ECP �must hold meetings with the candidates and apprise them of the relevant laws/rules;� provision of official transport to the voters, and �in no case, shall it allow the candidates to hire/use private transport on Election Day,� etc.

Apparently, going beyond its remit, however, the Supreme Court also ventured into what constitute policy areas best left to the Government and the Parliament as well as political parties of Pakistan to take, such as first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, Compulsory voting, run off election, and none of the above (NOTA) options in the ballot paper. The Supreme Court directed the ECP as follows:

12. The Election Commission is obliged to ensure that all elections witness a substantial participation of the electorate, therefore, all necessary steps must be taken to make voting compulsory in Pakistan as early as possible;

13. In the �First Past the Post� system of election, the winning candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast, therefore, such a candidate does not command the majority of the votes polled. As such, the system of �First Past the Post� violates the principle of majority. The Election Commission may explore ways and means to introduce appropriate system of election including �run off election� and �none of the above options�, in the light of the discussion made hereinabove, to ensure true representation of the people and rule of the majority;

ECP Directive for bye-election in NA-151 in the light of Supreme Court verdict

In the light of Supreme Court judgment in Constitution Petition No. 87 of 2011 (Workers Party Pakistan v. Federation of Pakistan, etc.), the Election Commission of Pakistan issued a detailed directive for bye-election in Multan (NA-151), the seat vacated by Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, MNA and former Prime Minister, after his disqualification.

The ECP directive issued for bye-election in NA-151 Multan-IV and which the ECP suggested will be implementable in all future elections included putting in place hitherto untested mechanism such as sending teams of �constituency monitors� by the ECP, mandatory opening of single election expense accounts by candidates and providing weekly statements to the ECP and ban on the provision of transport to the voters by the candidates on the election day, among other things.

What these additional measures, such as delivery of perchis to voters and provision of transport to voters has cost the national exchequer in just one bye-election and how the cost escalation compares to the average cost of election in one constituency remains to be seen.

Media reports on the compliance of these directives also paint a negative picture and raise concerns as to how the ECP will be able to implement these directives in a country-wide General Election if the implementation standards have been so poor in just one constituency.

Concluding its pre-election assessment mission in NA-151 a day before polling, PILDAT's Citizens Group on Electoral Process also said that the new directive of the ECP relating to curtailing election spending is only partially enforced in the by-election.^[7]

While most of these directives are very welcome initiatives to improve the compliance of electoral laws and rules by the candidates and political parties and the ECP should be complimented on taking these steps, the decision to provide transport to voters from distant polling stations at state expense and arranged by the ECP is rather questionable on more than one counts. Establishing more polling stations closer to the population centres would have been a much better option.

The present provincial governments have failed to hold local government elections since the term expired for the previous local governments. Except for Balochistan and KP, the other two provinces have even failed to frame local government laws which provide the basis for local government elections.

As a result, the ECP has failed to discharge its duty to hold the local government election as mandated by the 18th amendment to the Constitution.

The Judiciary, however, moved to ensure holding of Local Government Elections. On April 12, 2012, Supreme Court of Pakistan asked the Provincial Governments to immediately announce the schedule of local government elections. By May 2, only the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) had announced that it would hold Local Government election in October-November 2012.

On April 30, the Chief Justice of Pakistan directed the Secretaries local government departments in the four provinces to intimate the date of the local government elections by May 3.

On May 8, the KP Assembly passed the Local Government Act 2012. On May 18, the Sindh High Court directed the Sindh Government to hold Local Government election within 90 days.

Punjab Government has drafted a new Local Government law which is placed before the Provincial Assembly for consideration and passage. The Sindh Government is engaged in protracted dialogue with its coalition partner MQM to iron out some of the key differences about the power and structure of the local government and has yet to initiate a bill in the assembly.

It is still not clear if the local governments elections will precede the next general elections.

Delay in the conduct of local government elections exposes contradictions in Pakistan�s political setup. While Pakistan�s provinces have been demanding provincial autonomy, and have received so under the 18th Amendment, they seem reluctant to devolve power to the local levels.

Interestingly, Punjab is reported to be planning, or favouring, to conduct the election on a non-party basis. It is even suggested that Punjab wants to restore the local government of 1979.^[8] KP, on the other hand, has opted for a party-based local government election as per the law its Assembly has recently passed. One can argue that a local government election based on participation of political parties will serve the democratic process better.

According to a news report, the Government is also planning to implement local government system in FATA on Independence Day. Although the draft of the regulation is placed on the web^[9] for comments, it remains to be seen whether the Federal Government will be able to hold wider consultation on the issue among the stake holders. The local government system is one of the best things that can happen to FATA. However, the fact that the Governor KP is the ultimate authority on dismissal, this may hit some serious snags. A similar case is that of Gilgit-Baltistan where a federally-nominated Council�s decisions override elected legislative assembly. The same may be seen in FATA�s case, though with time, the Governor�s rule has to be done away with and FATA should be brought into the mainstream.

Both executive and judiciary must dispel the impression that the two are headed for a confrontation. The mixed signals coming from both the quarters suggests that even though there are differences about certain issues, the concept of sustainability of democracy is upheld by both.

Prime Minister�s Ouster

First, the Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed the parliamentary membership of the then Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, resulting into his ouster from the top post. Some circles felt that the SC could have exhibited some restraint such as by asking the ECP to disqualify the PM�s membership as per the legal procedure.

By accepting the court�s decision, President Asif Ali Zardari and his party, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), avoided a deadlock.

Questions, however, remain about the Court�s decision on the fate of Raja Pervez Ashraf. Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has also asserted that he will not write a letter to the Swiss authorities to re-open the graft cases against President Zardari. Will his fate be the same as that of his predecessor?

Contempt of Court, 2012

The SC annulled the Contempt of Court Act, 2012 which was passed by both the houses of Parliament earlier in July.

The Contempt of Court Act, 2012 had provided immunity from contempt proceedings to the public office holders including prime minister, governors, chief ministers, federal ministers and state ministers.^[10]

The SC�s annulment of the Contempt Act was already on the cards. It is, however, not clear whether the Government would file a review petition to challenge the verdict.^[11]

The SC judges, in their remarks, took exception to the walkout by the opposition in the Parliament as well and stated that the opposition should have stayed in the House and resisted the passage of the bill. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly has questioned these remarks and how could an opposition, outnumbered in a House, could have prevented the passage of the bill.

Superior Courts and the ECP move to enforce the bar on dual nationality holders to be members of national and provincial legislatures

Although the Constitution of Pakistan always placed a bar on persons holding or acquiring nationality of any country other than Pakistan to become members of national or provincial legislatures of Pakistan, it is to the credit of the present ECP which made practical arrangements to enforce this constitutional provision by including a declaration in the nomination forms about the status of nationality of each candidate.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan directed the Secretaries of the National Assembly and the Senate on May 8, 2012 to submit a comprehensive report on the Parliamentarians who hold dual nationality. On May 26, the Supreme Court suspended PPPP MNA Farahnaz Ispahani�s membership of the National Assembly for holding the nationality of the USA. On June 5 the Supreme Court suspended the Senate membership of Rehman Malik, Federal Minister for Interior, as he failed to prove that he was not a British national. On June 6, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal and provincial legislators who possessed dual citizenship at the time of filing their nomination papers and did not validly renounce it then were disqualified to hold office. On June 26, the Supreme Court suspended the membership of PPPP MNA Zahid Iqbal for apparently holding dual nationality.

The steps taken by the ECP and the Supreme Court in enforcing the constitutional provisions are commendable and will go a long way in strengthening the rule of law in the country.

A bill to abolish restrictions on dual national Pakistanis of 16 countries from contesting the election was also introduced by the Government in the Senate on July 10, 2012.^[12]

PILDAT believes that article 63-1-c of the 1973 Constitution must be retained in its present form. If the Parliament of Pakistan wishes to reconsider the bar on dual nationals to contest election, it is well within its right to do so but given the strongly held positions in Pakistan on this issue, the Parliament must refer the debate to the public before any decision. Political Parties represented in the Parliament and those outside the Parliament must discuss the issue threadbare internally before they take a position on the issue. Parliament and political parties should give sufficient time to build a consensus on the issue and not hurry the process.

PILDAT has also demanded that the bar must be enlarged and legal provisions must also be put in place to ensure that dual nationals can not hold other high public offices such as the Judiciary, civil services, and other statutory positions.

On June 27, 2012, a full bench of the Lahore High Court called upon the President of Pakistan to give up his partisan political activities by September 5 in accordance with a May 12, 2011 judgment given by a larger bench against the holding of the office of PPP co-chairman also by him. The Court also said that �In the present case, the respondent (President) has also accepted the judgment (May 12, 2011) by not challenging the same.�

On April 17, 2012, a newspaper had alleged that the President of Pakistan, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, had violated the code of conduct issued by the ECP when he visited Multan on April 14, 2012 and met Mr. Usman Bhatti, the PPP candidate in the election just two days after the ECP had issued the election code. The by-election was being held for a seat of the Punjab Provincial Assembly in constituency PP-194, Multan I where the election was scheduled for April 26.

The code issued by the ECP clearly stated that: �If any person in the service of Pakistan misuses his official position in any manner calculated to influence the result of the election, he may be tried by a court of sessions as contemplated under section 95 of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 and if found guilty of the offence, may be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to Rs. 2000 or with both under section 92 of the Act.�

With the Lahore High Court following up on its judgment of May 12, 2011, the President holding the office of Co-Chairman PPP simultaneously and his partisan activities in and out of the President�s House increasing with the approaching General Election, the question about including the President also among the public office holders who are barred from visiting the constituencies during election, etc. has become all the more relevant and significant.

FATA�s Future

A jirga convened by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), attended by the party chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, has expressed its reservation over the proposed merger of FATA with KP.^[13]

There has long been a debate in Pakistan on what should be the status of FATA. The very debate conveys the near consensus in society that the current status of FATA impedes its governance prospects.

However, opinion inside and outside FATA is divided over FATA�s future. The Awami National Party argues that given the geographical contiguity and ethnic similarities, FATA should be merged into the KP. Others, however, argue that FATA�s unique tribal culture demands that it must be given the status of a separate province.

PILDAT believes that peace and good governance in FATA require meaningful mainstreaming of these areas with the rest of Pakistan. Two alternatives of a) Merger into KP; and b) Reconstitution as a separate Province of Pakistan should be given to the people of FATA and their views should be ascertained through a referendum.

The tale of two Commissions

Reportedly, the much-delayed release of the report of the Abbottabad Commission is shelved and will not be released. Thus, we may never know whether it was our complicity or our incompetence, or a bit of both, in regard to the presence of Osama Bin Laden on our soil.

That only the report�s summary findings will be released fits into the pattern of secrecy adopted historically in Pakistan. Is it, however, the democratic system that is too weak to handle the public release of the findings of the Commission or it is the establishment that is fearful about the release of complete contents of the report? Questions will also be asked as to why a relative haste was shown on the Memo Commission that found Pakistan�s Ambassador to the United States guilty as the writer of the memo. The alleged memo was written immediately after the Abbottabad raid in which OBL was killed � the two investigations, therefore, have been somewhat linked chronologically.

A test for judicial independence

A test for judicial independence made headlines in early June when a business tycoon and owner of Bahria town, Malik Riaz, accused Dr. Arsalan Iftikhar, son of Chief Justice, for taking money from Malik Riaz Hussain to influence cases pertaining to Bahria town.^[14] Dr. Arsalan Iftikhar denied all these allegations. Malik Riaz Hussain also acknowledged that the Supreme Court or the Chief Justice did not give any favour to him.

Although the Supreme Court took a notice of the allegation after media had broken the scandal, there is also a need to address murmurs as to why the pro-active SC did not take an early notice when the allegations were doing the rounds. There is now a need to setup an impartial investigating team that looks into the allegations leveled against Dr. Arsalan Iftikhar. The one tasked earlier has been dissolved upon the SC�s instruction; it is now up to the NAB to form its own team to investigate the issue.^[15] Whatever be the outcome, findings of Bahria-probe must be publicly shared.

The passage of the fifth budgets by both national and provincial assemblies was as usual a ritualistic event. Once again Parliament and Provincial Assemblies neither had a chance to influence budget while it was prepared nor were their respective Standing Committees referred with departmental budget for scrutiny. As usual, Pakistan�s public representatives merely signed on the dotted line drawn by the Executive.

In democracies worldwide, there is a balance of power between the Executive and the Legislature in Budgetary Management. However, the control over public finances is weak in Pakistan. One reason for this is limited or weak control over public finances by the legislature.

The Constitution provides vast powers to the Executive over use of public funds. One such power is provided through Article 84 of the constitution. Article 84 permits the Executive to change the purpose of funds and enhance expenditure beyond that approved by the Legislature. The result of this power is that most of the times in the history of Pakistan, the budget approved by the legislature has almost always been exceeded by the Executive. A study from the around the World suggest that such a power given to the Executive over the supplementary budgets is only found in 3-4 countries. In almost all countries the Executive is not allowed to change purpose or spend additional funds without approval of the Legislature.^[16]

A PILDAT analysis of the Federal Budget revealed that 33% increase has been approved for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry � which is perhaps one of the highest increases in the Federal Budget 2012-2013. Why did the Government propose such an increase in an Election Year? Apparently a lot of money will be spent on publicizing the government performance. But, once again, MNAs did not ask meaningful questions during the budget debate.

Formation of National Commission for Human Rights

After more than seven years^[17]of its drafting, a National Commission for Human Rights^[18] mandated to look into human rights abuses across the country has finally been constituted.^[19] Better late than never.

PILDAT had already issued a legislative brief when the bill to this effect was first presented. It is heartening to find some recommendations from the brief such as inclusion of members from FATA and GB into the new bill.^[20] However, unlike the original model which restricted the commission�s chairpersonship to an experienced judge, the commission may now be headed by a person with a different background. The bill also grapples with human rights abuses by the security organs. To this end, it outlays two separate mechanisms � one for dealing with armed forces and other, for intelligence.

Conviction of Dr. Afridi by a Tribal Court

The conviction of Dr. Shakeel Afridi at the hands of a civil servant in tribal areas has opened up a debate about his conduct and the punishment meted out to him.

Although Dr. Afridi was apprehended for colluding with the CIA in its manhunt of OBL, he was charged in late May 2012^[21] for providing financial support to a key militant in Khyber Agency.

Dr. Afridi�s disguise as anti-polio vaccination officer, in order to get to OBL, will certainly dent the anti-polio drive in the area. In some areas of the KP, polio drops are viewed suspiciously as a medication to �sterilize� the Muslim population. Needless to say, Dr. Afridi�s fake drive will only strengthen doubts about the polio vaccination. One Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar has already imposed a ban on polio vaccination drive in North Waziristan Agency. Bahadar�s pamphlet cites �spying� carried out by Dr. Afridi in the guise of anti-polio officer as evidence enough to be suspicious of the drive.^[22]

The passage of anti-sectarianism �code of conduct� in the Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) is the first serious legislative step in combating sectarianism in the area.^[23] That the bill was tailored for local circumstance^[24] � in GB, terrorism is mostly sectarian^[25] in nature � shows how Pakistan�s other provinces can tackle militancy within.

Geo�s self-accountability:

With Government regulation on the media as a largely unacceptable option, and failed attempts at self-regulation by the media, Geo TV has decided to go ahead and tie itself to self-designed regulations called the �Geo Asool.�

The individual model of self-regulation by Geo must be lauded especially as the channel has offered itself for accountability. One would also like to hope that this may eventually lead to self-regulation by the Pakistani media.

The document, which seems to have incorporated Constitutional and legal parameters already defined, also lists Geo�s position on areas such as foreign policy, security affairs, terrorism, etc.

While the document carries guidelines and best practices on Judiciary and Defence and Security and even President as well, among others, there should be separate guidelines and best practices relating to the Parliament as well. A real test will be how Geo adheres to its self-designed principles. Will it be issuing an annual review based on these principles or will it be asking for an entity other than itself to conduct evaluation?