LAHORE: Parliamentary Leader of the PPP in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman said on Thursday that what happened in the joint session a day earlier will go down in history as ‘black day’ where the “red line was crossed by the government”.
“The world saw the worst demonstration of Pakistan’s government pass controversial, polarising legislation with an artificial majority created by coercion and carrots. Despite contested counting, in a joint session held together by scores of sergeants at arms to protect a partisan speaker, they went ahead to bulldoze their bills amid protests, in one of the worst subversions of parliamentary democracy Pakistan has ever seen,” the PPP leader said.
“These bills were bulldozed after the speaker had ensured us that all bills in the joint session and ordinances promulgated will be discussed in a Parliamentary committee. Why did he go back on his words? Because the government finds his reputation dispensable,” she added.
Rehman stated that no election law has ever been passed by the parliament in Pakistan without consensus and agreement by all stakeholders.
“No election can be held on these laws,” she asserted.
“This is a recipe for sowing chaos in Pakistan. Political engineering of this kind has yielded disastrous results for Pakistan before as well, but the country has never been as weak and divided as today,” she added.
“The most controversial bills also include the law which will allow the use of EVMs in the elections. This has been done despite ECP’s categorical warnings that it is impossible to forgo hacking and tampering with the EVMs in the elections. By allowing the use of these machines, the government has already made the elections controversial,” Sherry maintained.
Rehman said that the opposition were not ‘scared of technology’ but EVM technology was clearly being set up as a doorway to rigging while voters’ lists going to a government department like NADRA is a macabre joke, which won’t survive any independent scrutiny or judicial appeal to reverse.
“It cannot be used for the next general elections on the whims of this government. This project is not even financially feasible as there are approximately 100,000 polling stations and 400,000 polling booths. If separate machines were used for National Assembly and provincial assembly elections then 900,000 machines would be required which will approximately cost Rs150 billion and Rs1.5-2 lakh each. Do we have this kind of money to waste? The taxpayer’s money is not for dubious political engineering projects,” she questioned.
“The electronic voting machine is being imposed on the nation and the election commission despite their consistent disagreements and reiterated concerns,” the PPP leader added.
Sherry asserted that the joint opposition was united which is why the selected government is scared and has bulldozed this session.
“It takes months to pass a bill whereas they have passed 33 bills in a day, it is shocking that bills are bulldozed in a terrible travesty of parliamentary norms, democracy and basic rules of procedure. We do not accept any law passed by the selected government,” she said.
