Objections of AGP, ministers: Parliamentary approval of main electoral reforms deferred

ISLAMABAD: The comprehensive electoral reforms that had proposed 75 amendments in the Elections Act were not brought before the Nov 17 joint session of parliament after Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan and some ministers had raised objections to certain changes.

“When the reservations were conveyed to Prime Minister Imran Khan, he agreed that the bill containing a large number of amendments should be put off,” the attorney general told The News when contacted.

He said he had serious objections to different amendments that he had articulated and recommended that the bill should not be presented in the joint parliamentary sitting unless the reservations were removed.

What the parliament cleared was another bill that consisted of only two amendments in the Elections Act, Khalid Jawed Khan said. They related to the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and i-voting right for the overseas Pakistanis.

He said that these were enabling provisions and gave legal cover to such measures to facilitate the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in implementing them.

The attorney general pointed out that it was already provided in the Elections Act that the ECP would start pilot projects on these two counts. He said there was no doubt that it was the ECP responsibility, function and duty under the Constitution to hold the polls honestly, just and impartially.

The ECP had objected to not only the EVMs and i-voting for Pakistani expatriates but rejected 45 out of 75 amendments encapsulated in the deferred electoral reforms. It is going to repeat its stand before the superior court where the bill would be called into question.

To a question that the bill approved by the parliament has not specified in which general elections the EVMs would be used and the overseas Pakistanis would cast their ballots through internet, the attorney general said that it was obvious that these measures would be applicable to the next parliamentary polls.

Khalid Jawed Khan said that the use of EVMs and i-voting would be defended in a superior court if they were challenged by their critics. The combined opposition has declared that it was going to the court against the bill.

The approved bill replaced clause 1 of Section 94 of the Elections Act with: the ECP will, with technical assistance of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), or any other Authority and Agency will enable overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote during general elections in their country of residence.

The replaced provision said the ECP may conduct pilot projects for voting by overseas Pakistanis in bye-elections to ascertain the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of such voting and will share the results with the government, which will, within 15 days from the commencement of a session of a House after the receipt of the report, lay the same before both Parliament.

Section 103 was replaced by, the ECP will procure EVMs for casting of voters in general elections. The original provision read, the ECP may conduct pilot projects for utilization of electronic voting machines and biometric verification system in bye-elections in addition to the

existing manual procedures for voter verification, casting and counting of votes to assess the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of the electronic voting machines and biometric verification system and will share the results with the government, which will, within 15 days from the commencement of a session of a House after the receipt of the report, lay the same before both Houses of Parliament.