PPP, PTI amends, if approved, could have hit head of any political party

ISLAMABAD: The myth that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) controls the Senate stood exploded as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its allies got rejected a key amendment in the proposed electoral reforms law.

The PPP aggressively wanted to block deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s retention of the office of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) despite his Supreme Court-imposed disqualification, but the move fell flat.

This relic of Pervez Musharraf’s era needed to be demolished because it was inserted in the law through a martial law decree to target top politicians so that they could not head their political parties. It was strange that any political figure worth the name would oppose its scrapping because it might have hit him or his party boss one day had it stayed in the statute.

Interestingly, the amendment in the new proposed law sponsored by the PPP was defeated by the margin of just one vote, the same nominal difference that the PML-N and PPP have in their respective numerical strengths in the Senate. The PML-N now has 27 senators as against PPP’s 26 MPs. Both got 11 additional votes each from their allies.

The best way to field out politicians is the political field on the force of the ballot instead of through any other means. Only those who are incapacitated to outshine their rivals in the political arena resort to other methods to overpower them.

The electoral reforms package, prepared with untiring efforts of all the parliamentary parties spanning nearly three years, is now finally clear for implementation. It would have become conclusive had the Senate passed it as received from the National Assembly. But since the Upper House had done some amendments in it, it will go back to the Lower House where it will be passed without any hassle as the PML-N and its allies are in dominant position there. Then, it will be sent to President Mamnoon Hussain for enactment.

Despite their grave differences on a host of issues, the credit for firming up the package, incorporating some eight laws in it, goes to all the parliamentary players. It showed that the politicians have the abilities and capabilities to sort out even grave contentious issues.

As far as Nawaz Sharif is concerned, he has mostly been receiving bad news from the day, July 28, he was disqualified. The rejection of the amendment enabling him to retain the slot of the PML-N president is obviously a good news for him after the impressive victory of his wife, Begum Kulsoom, in the NA-120 Lahore by-election. Her serious illness had added to his woes.

As directed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in pursuance of clause 5(1) of Musharraf’s Political Parties Order 2002, after the apex court verdict, Nawaz Sharif had immediately vacated the PML-N office. As a stopgap, Senator Sardar Yaqoob Nasir had been made its acting president.

The plan was to give this berth to Shahbaz Sharif. However, the PML-N delayed his election, perhaps waiting for the approval of the electoral reforms so that Nawaz Sharif could keep the office. Everyone who joined forces to vote out the amendment in fact sided with politicians and rejected the undemocratic moves to oust political leaders through stupid laws.