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Islamabad: Pakistan has issued visas for more than 200 foreign observers to monitor its January 8 parliamentary elections, which President Pervez Musharraf has repeatedly asserted would be absolutely free and fair.
The spokesman of the foreign ministry told a media briefing here yesterday that no request for visa from abroad had so far been turned down.
"The cases of over 200 observers including journalists, members of non- governmental organisations and officials have been processed and visas issued," said spokesman Mohammad Sadiq.
They include 60 observers from the US-based International Republic Institute (IRI) and 67 from the European Union.
The Commonwealth had not so far indicated it intended to send poll observers to the country, the spokesman said.
Sadiq said the observers would be issued special passes and allowed to visit any part of the country and any of the 65,000 polling stations to observe the voting process.
He said the election commission had prescribed a code of conduct for the international observers.
Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq once again vowed yesterday that the election commission was committed to holding fair and free elections.
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