Abstract
The elections in Pakistan did not come upto the international criteria of “free and fair” long before Gen. Pervez Musharraf took over in a military coup in the October 1999. The era of military rule of Pervez Musharraf meant that elections were held regularly and their impartiality was often challenged. The privacy of the ballot in the elections under Musharraf has not always been preserved and applies by election commission of Pakistan due to the influence of local feudal and tribal leaders, who had repeatedly cooperated for the free will of voters. The military regime had frequently placed severe restrictions on the rights of people to the freedom of expression, assembly, movement and association. Pervez Musharraf had pledged the nation to hand over the power to elected representatives of Pakistan after the completion of the process of accountability and started the process of giving power to the people by holding elections of local bodies that followed the presidential referendum in the next year and general elections. He introduced a new local bodies system in 2000 and after the completion of his first four year term with success he undertook new local bodies elections in 2005 and in this way held four elections in five years, two local bodies one referendum and a general election of 2002 all in pursuit of political legitimacy of his dictatorship. The electoral development in Pakistan in the first half decade of 21st century in very important to analyze for the understanding of the electoral politics of the 2nd decade of the 21st century in Pakistan.