LAHORE: All eyes are glued to the joint session of the parliament taking place in Islamabad today as the government is set to introduce the important amendments to the Elections Act, 2017 which includes voting right to overseas Pakistanis and use of Electronic Voting Machines.
Both the opposition and treasury benches are making an all-out effort to succeed. It is pertinent to mention that the PM Imran Khan led government previously faced an embarrassment last week when they had to call off the joint session of the parliament as they lacked a simple majority to get these amendments passed due to the reservations of its allies including MQM and PML-Q.
Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the issue, PM Imran met the disgruntled allies of his party including MQM and PML-Q and addressed their concerns before the president convened the session on Wednesday.
According to sources, MQM which had been accusing the federal government for rising inflation has managed to get PM Imran’s assurance that their demands will be fulfilled after which they assured the premier of their support during the joint session of the assembly.
Sources added that it is the part of the deal between MQM and the PTI as they had sought inclusion of two bills namely Hyderabad University Bill-2021 and Amendment in Census Bill-2021, after which the constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies in Karachi would be re-demarcated.
“The government agreed to this and both of these bills are now on the agenda of the joint session,” sources said.
As per the Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry around 28 bills will be tabled during the joint session of the parliament including the one which is considered the most controversial that is the use of EVMs in the next general elections and voting rights for overseas Pakistanis.
Salient features of the bill
The Second amendment introduced by the PTI government to the Elections Act, 2017 are to sections 94(1) and Section 103 of the Elections Act 2017.
The bill recommended in section 94, for subsection (I), the following shall be substituted namely:- “(l) The Commission shall, with technical assistance of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), or any other Authority and Agency shall enable overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote during general elections in their country of residence.”
Whereas, the government recommended another amendment to section 103, in which it stated that the following shall be substituted, namely: “Electronic voting. The Commission shall procure electronic voting machines (EVMs) for casting of votes in general elections.”
Previously, the relevant section stated: “The ECP may conduct pilot projects for voting by overseas Pakistanis and utilisation of EVMs and biometric verification system in by-elections in addition to the existing manual procedures for voter verification, casting and counting of votes to assess the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of the EVMs and biometric verification system.”
While introducing these amendments to the Elections Act, 2017, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan was of the opinion that the fair free and transparent elections have been a long outstanding demand of almost all the political parties including PTI.
Awan had said that The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is obligated to organise and conduct elections honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law and that corrupt practices are guarded against, under Article 218 (3) of the Constitution.
The adviser to the PM was of the view that the utilization of technology and modern gadgets have become essential to facilitate the ECP for ensuring transparency in elections.
“Similarly, there is a consensus amongst almost all the political parties to grant voting right to overseas Pakistanis, which may only be possible by vesting exclusive authority in the ECP to enable overseas Pakistanis, with technical assistance of NADRA and other agencies, to exercise their right to vote.
He maintained that the bill is designed to achieve the aforesaid objectives through amending sections 94 and 103 of the Elections Act. 2017.
However, PML-N Senator Dr Asif Kirmani told Bol News that the opposition parties will vote against these amendments to Elections Act as well because if these amendments will be passed the usage of EVM in the next general elections would be disadvantageous to them and because by the use of these machines anyone [say PTI] could be made the winner of the elections.
