User:Shaheer paracha/sandbox

Brief History Of Pakistan
The country of Pakistan gained independence on August 14, 1947. This partition was due to religious reasons and differences from the connected India which mainly consist of those between Muslim and Hindu, the ideologies that are in place consist those of Islam. . The government of Pakistan has three level which include Federal, Provincial, and local and Pakistan is among those countries which have both a President currently is Mamnoon Hussein and Nawaz Sharif who holds the position as the Prime Minister. . Although the country previously was under military rule, in 2001 the country was declared to switch over to Democracy by the military leader Pervez Musharraf.

2002 Referendum
Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf came into a position of power in the country and took the role as Chief Executive on October 12, 1999. According to Musharraf this step was necessary in order to eliminate turmoil and uncertainty from the country. After becoming Chief Executive of the country, he later overthrew the President of Pakistan who was currently Rafiq Tarar and became President himself. Although the country previously was under military rule, in 2001 the country was declared to switch over to Democracy by the military leader Pervez Musharraf. Before being elected as the Prime Minister through the legal method of elections, a referendum was held on April 30, 2002. This was done in order to see whether the general population of Pakistan would want a man like Pervez Musharraf to stay the President for the coming five years. According to Musharraf, one of the major reasons for holding a referendum was due to the idea of abiding by democratic laws and holding he esteemed position of President through the approval of the population. Although, in the constitution of Pakistan, no official rule which stated President-ship must or should be achieved by referendums. .

Referendum a Sham or not
The referendum that took place in 2002 is seen by many as a sham or a fixed one. After the results had been released, it appeared to many that this activity was a clearly a hoax. According to the Election Commissioner in Pakistan, 44 million or 70% of the voters out of the total 63 million residents cast a vote. This fell under the radar due to the fact that results of the parliamentary elections in 1997 were less than 36% and Safar Ali Shah, a spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League, claimed that there has never been a turnout of greater than 36%. Many individuals from various parties had regarded the action of Musharraf as immoral and that he must resign from his position immediately. On top of all the hatred for the decisions made by Musharraf, political parties of Pakistan expressed the idea of boycotting the vote. In order to tackle this, the total voting age dropped from 21 to 18 and the number of polling stations increased by ten times. However, the voting had been done without the placement of certain guidelines including identification cards. Seeing the idea of the referendum pass, opposition parties including Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League. Both parties referred to the decision of Musharraf as inappropriate and urged residents of Pakistan to boycott voting. .