Shock and awe of the ill-timed Presidential Ord

ISLAMABAD: The midnight Presidential Ordinance, changing the procedure for the Fata polls, was not only shocking for the political parties and the media but also surprised the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Law Ministry and even the top legal aides to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Sources in the government admit that the Presidential Order, issued hours before the start of the Senate polling, was illegal and flawed.These sources also disclosed that the file for the issuance of the Presidential Order was not routed through the Ministry of Law, which was also not in knowledge of this major but extremely controversial development leading to the postponement of the Senate elections for Fata.
It is also learnt the Presidential Order, issued late Wednesday night, was based on the draft that was never endorsed by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Law Ministry or the Prime Minister’s top legal aides sitting in the PM’s Office.
On the contrary, the three—ECP, Law Ministry and PM’s legal aides—had prepared two consensus drafts for Presidential Order to improve the system of voting for Fata senators, but the one finally issued was altogether different and had revived the pre-2002 system.
It could not be ascertained that on whose direction the objectionable draft was hurriedly moved on Wednesday for the mid night issuance of Presidential Order to change the polling procedure for Fata Senate seats.
Such has been the situation that the prime minister’s legal team was totally unaware, the Law Ministry was not even shown the draft of the Order whereas the Ministry of State and Frontier Region (Safron) was also directed by an official of the PM office to immediately sign the draft and push it upward.
The sources said that the Safron minister was consulted by his ministry officials last night and told about the urgency of the matter and that the PM Office wants it to be signed immediately.
A few weeks back when the government first thought about changing election procedures for Senate polls in order to make it transparent and free from corruption and horse-trading, a draft Presidential Order was prepared and discussed between different stakeholders.
The parliamentary affairs ministry was told to send the draft to the Election Commission of Pakistan, which, after detailed deliberations, had raised several objections and also highlighted some illegal parts of the draft Order. The Law Ministry also had serious objections following which senior officials of the Law Ministry, ECP and PM Office held a few sessions of serious deliberations.
Consequently, they prepared two drafts for Presidential Order, but the one finally issued is said to be a new one that according to government sources is flawed and illegal.One of these sources said that after 1973 Constitution, different procedures adopted for the Senate elections in Fata were illegal and unconstitutional because in each case every Fata MNA was given several votes to elect senators.
It is said that the objection was raised the right of more than one vote to each Fata MNA for Senate election was the violation of Article 59(2), which reads as: “Election to fill seats in the Senate allocated to each province shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.”
The source added that since the inception of 1973 Constitution, flawed and illegal electoral system for Fata senators have been implemented. The source added that what the Law Ministry, the ECP and the PM’s legal minds had agreed to was the procedure under which each Fata MNA was to be given one-man one-vote right as is the situation in all the provinces. However, what the President late Wednesday night approved simply revived the pre-2002 system.