Govt, opposition lock horns as SC hears Senate open ballot case today

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/MULTAN: With the Supreme Court set to resume the hearing today of the presidential reference about open balloting in Senate elections, the government and opposition continued to question each others’ intent over the matter on Sunday.

The five-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, includes Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Yahya Afridi. Attorney-General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan will represent President Arif Alvi and continue his arguments today.

On December 23, 2020 President Alvi, after approving the Prime Minister’s proposal, filed an 11-page reference in the Supreme Court under Article 186 of the Constitution relating to the advisory jurisdiction of the court and sought its opinion on holding the upcoming elections for the Upper House of the Parliament through open ballot and show of hands.

In the previous hearing, the AGP asked why signatories to the Charter of Democracy (CoD) in their vow to remove distortions in the Constitution “failed to do away with the menace of horse-trading in the elections while adopting the 18th Amendment”.

He asked why the two major political parties, as well as the co-authors of the CoD, did nothing to do away with this while adopting the 18th Constitutional amendment through which over 100 amendments were introduced in the green book.

He AGP argued that the federal government was trying to “plug” the menaces of horse-trading and vote-buying, but the political opponents were resisting it. The AGP, while referring to the Senate elections in March, said a “market will be set up and horses would be sold in less than a month”.

The AGP said except for mentioning the voter’s name at the back of the ballot, the entire process of the elections will remain the same in the Senate elections in case the elections were held through open ballot and insisted the open ballot was for the sake of transparency.

On Saturday, the President promulgated an ordinance allowing open balloting in the Senate elections, which was linked to the outcome of the case in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, in a press conference in Karachi, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senators Raza Rabbani and Sherry Rehman called into question the government’s intent in moving a bill a month before the Senate elections and subsequently a presidential ordinance.

Rabbani said the ordinance is based on “ill-intent” and an attempt to “pressure the Supreme Court” and that he had never seen such an ordinance in his life, an ordinance which was tied to a presidential reference.

Sherry Rehman said the government lacks a two-thirds majority to pass a constitutional amendment, so it should have held a dialogue with the opposition for the purpose, according to Geo News.

“Why did the government bring the amendment bill a month before the election?” she asked and criticised the “overnight” ordinance. She said: “Bringing such an ordinance is an attack on the Constitution and Parliament. It is Parliament’s job to amend the Constitution.” She also said the PPP will challenge the “attacks” on courts, Parliament and the Constitution on every level.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Senator Asif Kirmani, meanwhile, said the government’s constitutional amendment bill was introduced in National Assembly without consulting senators, Geo News reported.

“The House, for which the amendment was tabled, was bypassed,” Kirmani added and termed the presidential ordinance an “insult” to the Upper House.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill reacted to the PPP press conference, and said: “In two years, the role of PPP in any legislation of national interest is zero. It was Benazir Bhutto who had stipulated in the Charter of Democracy to hold Senate elections through open ballot. Why is the horse-trading eradication ordinance so painful for you?”

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz in a tweet said transparency in elections is a democracy’s strength. He added that the opposition’s outcry on the step to ensure transparency in the Senate elections was “beyond comprehension”.

He added that by opposing the open ballot in Senate polls, the opposition parties “have made it clear that they do not want to end use of money in politics”.

In Multan, foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi spoke to the media, where he said the government wants to end “buying and selling” in the Senate elections. “In the last Senate election also there was a market to buy members,” Qureshi added.

“We do not have a two-thirds majority for constitutional amendment. We are also ready for constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, the opposition did not allow this to happen,” he said. He said the PPP and the PML-N called for an open ballot in its Charter of Democracy, so “why do they want to flee today?”

He also said the government will accept whatever the court’s decision is on the presidential reference. “Today, let the whole nation see who wants to end the corrupt practice,” the foreign minister said, and asked why the PPP and PML-N “want to establish a market”.