ISLAMABAD: A day after the Supreme Court (SC) directed to hold the Senate elections through an open vote, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday said that the Wednesday polls will be held “as provided in the Constitution and law as per past practice”.
The top court, while announcing its verdict on a presidential reference seeking legal opinion on the holding of Senate election through a show of hands, had in 4-1 majority opinion ruled the elections will be held through a secret ballot.
In a late night statement, the ECP said that it held a meeting on Monday under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja which “deliberated on the order/opinion of the Supreme Court passed today [Monday] in presidential reference No. 1/2020 and decided to implement it in letter and spirit”.
The apex court, in the eight-page verdict, had said: “It is the responsibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan to ensure that the election is conducted honestly, justly, fairly, and in accordance with [the] law and that corrupt practices are guarded against.”
The commission — while observing it was already taking all possible steps to curtail corruption in the elections for the House — said that a detailed order from the court was still awaited.
The top court had also said that the commission could “use the latest technology to ensure the holding of transparent elections” by exercising powers granted to it under Article 218.
In its response, the ECP meeting decided to constitute a three-member committee, comprising the special secretary, director general (IT), and joint provincial election commissioner from Punjab that would take input from different professionals and technical organisations on the use of technology in Senate elections.
The committee would then prepare recommendations based on the input within four weeks. It could also “take assistance from NADRA (National Database and Registration Authority), FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) and the Ministry of Information Technology […] for better recommendations”.
The decision had been taken due to “time constraints,” the statement added.
However, the SC verdict had admitted that the secrecy of the ballot papers was “not final”, quoting a decision by the top court on the same in 1967 (Niaz Ahmed versus Azizuddin).
While the order cited Article 226 of the Constitution to support its argument, the judges had said that the parliament can decide if it feels the need to end the secrecy of the voting process.
Commenting on the verdict, Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan had said it was now up to the ECP to select what method to use in the March 3 elections to check corruption.
“The ECP is bound to investigate and trace the ballot to see whether any corrupt practice occurred,” he had said in a statement.
