Mocking parliament

We are accustomed to allegations of rigging following each election that takes place in our country. But it is rare to have a storm over election fraud even before an election has taken place. This is what the PTI government managed to achieve as it bulldozed through its Election Act in a joint session of parliament, with multiple discrepancies arising over how the vote was conducted and how the speaker handled the sitting. The government successfully got 33 bills passed, including the bill on electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voting for overseas Pakistanis amidst protests by the opposition. The government naturally celebrated it as a victory – on the face of it, rightly so since just a few days ago, the allies of the PTI were publicly criticising the government and voicing doubts over being part of the coalition. The opposition, too, had its doubts whether the government would succeed or not given that they managed to defeat the treasury benches twice in one day in the National Assembly very recently.

The question is whether there should be any jubilation over such high-handed mockery of the legislative process. That the opposition is saying it was managed by some external factors says a lot about this government’s perception. The president had called a joint session of parliament on November 11, but Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted on November 10 that it had been postponed as the government wanted to take the opposition on board regarding electoral reforms. What transpired on Wednesday was the exact opposite of that. There has been near-unanimous consensus among civil society, the Election Commission of Pakistan, the legal fraternity, and opposition parties that the introduction of electronic voting machines needs to be rethought. For all credible democratic legislation, it is imperative that any reservations about proposed bills come under constructive discussion. The government however has not been keen on any such discussions to pave the way for consensus development. At the very least it should have taken into consideration the objections the ECP had raised. Instead, we have seen PTI leaders and ministers using derogatory language against the ECP, the opposition and against all those who had reservations about the bills.

Electoral reform is a serious task that no government should carry forward in a unilateral manner. In a country where every other election becomes controversial, such legislation holds utmost importance as it will eventually decide the direction of our democracy. Apart from pre-poll rigging, which ranges from changing loyalties of electables to managing several key factors that determine an election, we have seen election-day rigging and post-poll rigging in Pakistan. The 2018 election results were marred by the RTS controversy. Under such circumstances, it would benefit the entire political class to ensure that the next general elections are as transparent and free as possible. But, instead of resolving these controversies, the PTI government has made the next elections controversial two years before they are set to take place. If the body that is responsible for conducting elections is alarmed at the new law, how does it bode well for the upcoming elections? The opposition says it will challenge the passage of this controversial bill in court. Whether it does or not remains to be seen. Time will also tell if the courts will entertain this case and what the outcome will be. We are not even sure if the next elections will be held through EVMs or not given the complexities surrounding the entire process. All this may be up in the air but the political crisis that has been caused by bulldozing legislation in this manner speaks volumes about the tumultuous times ahead. A process of talks and dialogue could have solved the problems without as much distaste and chaos as we saw in the National Assembly on Wednesday. It would have been far more beneficial for the country if things could have reached a conclusion without this mess. This will certainly not help the next election, no matter what procedures are used to carry it out.