PM seeks use of EVMs, other reforms to check rigging in polls

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday said that everyone had seen the spectacle of Senate elections; such elections could not be held now, therefore, technology should be used for the next elections along with other reforms.

While addressing the cabinet meeting here, he said, “We should now use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) machine technology for transparent elections, now I will take regular updates in the cabinet, lest when the time comes we are not ready anywhere.” The prime minister directed the members to provide regular updates regarding the right to vote to overseas Pakistanis and the use of EVMs in elections.

Addressing the cabinet meeting, which was aired on the electronic media, the prime minister said that ruling elite, like Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, sends stolen money abroad and if it is kept in the country, it will be visible and when those in power send money out of the country then they join hands with money laundering agencies and weaken the institutions, who are supposed to guard against such practices.

He maintained that with the weakening of institutions, they come up with such schemes, which the country does not need but has huge bribes in it, mega kickbacks in mega projects and then this bribed money goes out. The prime minister contended that since these people have so much money for corruption, then it is also run in institutions, people are bought in every institution and that money is also used in media houses.

Citing a United Nations report, he said that $1 trillion was laundered from poor countries to rich countries every year and transferred to rich countries for offshore accounts. The money that was stolen from poor countries was dollars 1,000 billion. The report was prepared by a panel, formed by UN Secretary General Financial Accountability Transparency and Integrity. The PM noted that $7000 were stashed in the tax havens, which belong to the poor countries.

The prime minister said that in this way people were indebted and people pay the price of loans at high prices, through inflation. When the money goes out, he noted, then the media was used to make it acceptable in the society and the same money goes to the institutions and from which they buy institutions, corruption was not considered a bad thing in the society, then it was said that ‘if one eats, one also invests, then it is said that one Zardari is heavier than everyone else’.

He noted that in this way the corrupt person becomes big, these things harm the morality of the nation and when morality is destroyed, there is no justice in this country; there is a separate law for the strong and the weak and the powerful strike deal and the poor go to jail. He emphasized that when the morality of a country is destroyed, that country cannot do justice. In a nation which has no moral value, then there is a law for the strong and another law for the weak.

The prime minister continued that in the same way, NROs are given and dealt with by the powerful, while only the poor go to jails, thus really a nation is destroyed when it loses its ability to do justice. That was why, he noted, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) had said that the nations before you were destroyed because there were separate laws for the rich and the poor.

He said that the money that goes out of the poor countries goes because all checks and balances are abolished, the moral value of the nation is abolished, after which the powerful stand with them and compromises are made.

Premier Imran Khan said, “The way we saw in the Senate election, everyone knows that money was flowing, everyone saw this spectacle and when the nation accepts it, the biggest disaster comes, the way elections are held in the country. We can't do it now, the US election is an example, no matter how hard Trump tried he couldn't find it rigged.