No show of hands in Senate polls: Khursheed

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah on Tuesday did not agree to the government’s proposal of bringing about a constitutional amendment for voting through a show of hands in the Senate elections, saying that technically it was not possible.
“We are against horse-trading but casting of vote in the Senate elections through a show of hands is not possible technically and after the announcement of the election schedule, it is not proper to go for the constitutional amendment,” he said while talking to newsmen after chairing a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The opposition leader said if the government was sincere in bringing about the constitutional amendment, it should have come up for consultation on the issue before the announcement of the election schedule. “There remains no room for modification in the modus operandi for casting votes once the schedule for the Senate polls is announced,” he added.
He said Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rasheed and Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq had contacted him on Monday and he had told them that the proposal of bringing the constitutional amendment for voting in the Senate elections through a show of hands was not possible as voting in the Senate was a technical issue that could not be decided in haste. “If the government wants to change the voting system of the Senate, then it should come to the Parliamentary Constitutional Reforms Committee to settle such technical issues,” he added. He said the government seemed to agree with his views on this issue.
In a reply to a question on the elections of the chairman and deputy chairman Senate, he said the opposition will have a majority in the Senate after its election and efforts were being made to bring joint candidates of the opposition for these posts.
To a question regarding the upcoming elections in Gilgit Baltistan, the opposition leader said the government was busy in rigging the election with the appointment of its minister as the governor GB, a PML-N party lawyer as the chief election commissioner and PML-N workers as GB cabinet members.
He said the PPP had appointed Qamar Zaman Kaira as governor GB as a makeshift measure and once the law and rules were formulated, a woman governor was appointed and after her death another person from GB was made the governor.
He said Zulfikar Ali Bhuuto was a martial law administrator before the enactment of the 1973 Constitution and later he assumed the post of prime minister of Pakistan.He claimed the government was going to rig the election in the GB and did not even respond to his two letters.
On the role of the PPP for mediation between the PTI and PML-N on the formation of a judicial commission to probe the election rigging, the opposition leader said PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan and Qamar Zaman Kaira were expected to meet Jehangir Tareen on this issue on Wednesday. “The formation of the judicial commission is not a big issue and it would be settled down,” he added.