Opposition invited for electoral reforms

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said a constitutional amendment bill would be tabled in the parliament, suggesting the show of hands for the Senate election to eliminate the chances of corruption.

He said the opposition was part of the process and invited for amending the Constitution. He said electronic voting system would be in place to make the general election fair, free and transparent in future.

In his media talk here, the PM recalled that he had run a clean and transparent election campaign, and his aim was that when there were elections in the country, even the losers should admit their defeat themselves.

The prime minister said that the government would bring a constitutional amendment for which a two-thirds majority was needed, and it would be seen whether other political parties, which had been complaining of corruption and use of money in the Senate polls, would vote for it.

He pointed out that instead of secret ballot, show of hands would be mandatory for the voting in Senate election, as money had been used especially in smaller provinces to get elected by those who even had no affiliation with any political party. This, he was confident, would stem chances of corruption in the poll process. He recalled that on the very first day of the National Assembly in 2018, the opposition had raised hue and cry about rigging and he had promised to open the said constituencies. A committee, headed by Pervaiz Khattak, was formed and after its first meeting, the opposition did not attend its meetings.

The PM also announced that they were bringing in the best voting system i.e. the electronic voting system for which talks were under way with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), incorporating the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) data. He said that with the use of modern technology, the best voting system would be in place.

Likewise, he announced that about 9 million overseas Pakistanis, who were a big asset to the nation, would be made part of the electoral process, enabling them to fully participate in elections in future.

He vowed to fulfil the promise of giving Gilgit-Baltistan provisional status of a province. While talking about the recent Gilgit-Baltistan election, the PM said, “We will provide full details to the public on how Gilgit-Baltistan will be given interim provincial status, doing away with their sense of deprivation.”

The premier appreciated the people of Gilgit-Baltistan for participating in the election process in large numbers from remote areas despite extreme cold weather, which manifested that democracy had a bright future in Pakistan.

He recalled that at the end of 2013 general election, all political parties said that the election was rigged, the PML-N, which won the election, also said that rigging took place in Sindh and the PPP said that it was the returning officers’ election and hence all parties declared the election controversial.

The PM continued in that after election, 133 people filed petitions that there were irregularities or rigging in the elections and out of them, the PTI said that four National Assembly constituencies should be opened, even though the government was not formed with the help of these four constituencies. “We said this because the audit of these four constituencies would find out what had happened in the election. And when it would come to the fore, the ruling party would remove flaws in the 2018 polls process, and in the next elections,” he noted.

He said that to get his demand fulfilled “I went to Parliament for a year. We took four constituencies to the Election Tribunals. According to the law, decisions would have been made in four months; we went to the Supreme Court with all evidence also.

“When the government did not get ready to open those four constituencies for a year, we started protesting and staged a sit-in in Islamabad for 126 days. We staged the sit-in so that the election process could run smoothly.

“The sit-in gave way to a judicial commission, headed by Supreme Court judge Nasirul Mulk. The case continued for several weeks. We collected evidence and took the evidence of irregularities to the Supreme Court. The Judicial Commission came up with some very useful suggestions to make the electoral process transparent.”

The PM said that only the losers in the 1970 elections had conceded defeat, after which the losers in all the elections in Pakistan used to say that the elections were rigged and a movement was launched, which claimed lives, there was unrest also and ultimately martial law was imposed in the country.

Recalling his cricketing days, he said, "when I became captain, every country had its own umpires and the losing side would often say, the umpires sided with the home team.” Whenever the India-Pakistan matches were played, neither Pakistan could win in India, nor India could win in Pakistan, and whenever the match was over, it was said that the umpires played their part.

The premier said as a captain at that time he was proud that he was the only captain to go to India and win a match with their umpires. “However, as a captain, I campaigned for a neutral umpire and Pakistan was the first country in the 100-year history of cricket to have a neutral umpire in its own country when India visited Pakistan.”

He said that the history of cricket shows that neutral umpires came to cricket because of him and he tried to have such elections in Pakistan so that whoever loses would be recognised as the loser in the world of cricket today.

The prime minister emphasised that in the 2013 elections, 133 people filed petitions, alleging rigging in the elections while in the 2018 elections, only 102 petitions were filed, which means that fewer people in 2018 said rigging had taken place.

He continued that in the 2018 elections, there were 15 petitions of PML-N about rigging, nine petitions of the PPP and 23 petitions were filed by the PTI alone. In both cases, there were 24 petitions in 2018 and 23 petitions of PTI alone.

He said that the PTI lost 14 seats in the National Assembly in 2018 polls by a margin of less than 3,000 votes, the PPP lost only three seats in which the margin of votes was less than 3,000 while the PML-N lost 9 seats. So, how was it possible that if we did rigging, how could we lose so many seats by such a small margin? He noted that seats were lost by a margin of 70 and hundred votes by the PTI candidates.

Imran Khan said that in 2013, the Election Commission, the interim government, the polling staff belonged to them (opposition); in the 2018 elections, both the PML-N and the PPP had appointed Chief Election Commissioner and the entire Election Commission was elected by them, the interim government was put in place by them. All the polling staff of the party belonged to both the parties and they were in power, so we should have said rigging because we had more petitions filed after 2018 polls.

Separately, the federal cabinet was informed on Tuesday that there was no shortage of wheat and sugar in the country, and there would be no increase in their prices. The cabinet, which met with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, took stock of the given political scene, economic situation and the spread of coronavirus in the country.

The forum accorded approval to prime minister's aid package for the Rabi crop, especially wheat. Likewise, tax and duty exemptions were approved for 61 items used in the treatment of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The prime minister informed the cabinet members that a clear procedure had been worked out for the problems of members of National Assembly in their respective constituencies. In this regard, action will be taken against officers of district administration and grievance departments for not resolving issues timely.

The cabinet approved appointment of Ms Reena Saeed Khan as Chairperson Islamabad Wildlife Management Board in addition to approval of the appointment of chairperson and members of the National Commission for Human Development. The commission includes representatives from the provinces, Islamabad, minorities and women.

The forum also approved delegating legal powers to District and Sessions Judges stationed in 19 districts of the country. These powers are given under Section 8 (2) of the Prevention of Smuggling Ordinance 2020.

The procedure for appointment of chief executive in key government agencies and companies was approved in principle. The prime minister directed that the appointment process should be completely transparent and based on merit.

The cabinet ratified the decisions taken at the meetings of the Economic Coordination Committee held on 28 October 2020 and 4 November 2020. The decisions taken at the meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Legislation held on October 21, 2020 and November 5, 2020 were ratified.

However, the cabinet postponed the ratification of the decisions taken in the meeting of the Committee on Institutional Reforms dated October 29, 2020 and directed to resubmit it at the next meeting.

The cabinet approved the appointment of the chairman of the National Medical and Dental Academic Board under the Pakistan Medical Commission Act 2020. The cabinet approved the establishment of National Medical Authority under the Pakistan Medical Commission Act 2020.

The cabinet directed to set up a committee headed by the foreign minister to further facilitate the visa policy for the promotion of tourism in Pakistan, which will make recommendations in this regard and submit a report to the cabinet.

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Defying ban: PDM to hold scheduled rallies

By Muhammad Anis

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Tuesday announced to defy the ban on public meetings and also reached a consensus on a 12-point Charter of Pakistan, deciding that the opposition would not rest till the departure of the government.

A meeting of heads of 11 parties and other senior leaders was held here with the PDM President Maulana Fazlur Rehman in the chair. “We reject the ban on public meetings in the name of preventive measures against Covid-19,” Maulana Fazlur Rehman told newsmen after the meeting.

Fazlur Rehman, who was also instrumental in the creation of PDM, said the movement would go ahead with its already announced schedule of public meetings. The PDM plans to stage the next power show in Peshawar on November 22 followed by public meetings in Multan on November 30 and in Lahore on December 13.

To a question, Maulana Fazlur Rehman ruled out any possibility of talks with the PTI government, saying that they intended to go aheadwith public movement to achieve the objective of parliament’s supremacy.

The PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto, who is in Gilgit to lead the protest against alleged rigging in GB elections, and head of Balochistan National Party (Mengal) Sardar Akhtar Mengal participated in the meeting through video.

However, the PML-N Quaid, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, could not come on video link due to his "poor" health. Maryam Nawaz tweeted that Nawaz Sharif would not be able to join meeting due to severe pain in his kidney. “I am going to represent my father in the meeting. Pray for him,” she said.

The 12 points of Charter of Pakistan include Supremacy of the Constitution, Autonomy of the Parliament, Elimination of the role of establishment and intelligence agencies from politics, Establishment of an independent judiciary, Reforms for free, independent and fair elections, Protection of human democratic rights of the people, Protection of rights of the provinces and the 18th Constitutional Amendment, Effective Local Government system, Security of freedom of expression and media, Elimination of extremism and terrorism and implementation of the National Action Plan, Emergency Economic Plan, End to inflation, unemployment and poverty alleviation and Protection of Islamic Provisions of the constitution.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the PDM leaders also decided some principles and objectives as to how to move forward.

The PDM president went on to say that the meeting also expressed concern over the delaying tactics being used in the foreign funding case. “The confessional statement of Shabbar Zaidi is an FIR against the government,” he said.

The meeting observed that according to the statement of Shabbar Zaidi when he presented the list of corrupt people involved in foreign funding case, he was stopped from taking any action.

The meeting also rejected the GB election results on the basis of alleged rigging as Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the PDM leaders observed that engineered polls like the 2018 elections had verified the narrative of the opposition parties.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the PDM also completed its organisational structure while nominating two leaders from each party for slots of vice president and deputy secretary general of the movement. The movement had already named its President, Senior Vice President, Secretary General and Information Secretary.

Those nominated for the position of vice presidents include Qamar Zaman Kaira, Ahsan Iqbal, Haider Khan Hoti, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Muhammad Awais Noorani. Prominent among those nominated as deputy secretary generals are Rana Sanaullah Khan, Zahid Khan and Muhammad Akram Khan Durrani.