Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Wednesday said tomorrow’s victory of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidates including Hafeez Sheikh and Fauzia Arshad would be the last nail in the coffin of opposition’s dying politics.
Both the PTI’s candidates from Islamabad will easily win the Senate elections, he said in a news conference held here. The opposition had realised that Hafeez Shaikh would win and therefore started looking towards Fazl-ur-Rehman, Chief of Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl, thinking that his followers comprised of Maddrassah students would rescue them, the minister said. Maryam Nawaz failed in her political meetings and Bilawal Bhutto in the Parliament. “The opposition has failed to sell political slogans and have now again talking about launching a long march,” he said.
Chaudhry Fawad claimed that everyone knew what the opposition parties did to the country’s economy. “The country was bearing the debt burden of Rs 6000 billion from 1947 to 2006 which increased up to Rs 30,000 billion from 2008 to 2018 during the decade of darkness”, he said.
He observed that the Senate elections marked the major contest before the next general elections. “We have some 181 members on our side and this number is expected to increase tomorrow. As many as 176 of the 181 members met the prime minister at the luncheon today”, he said.
The minister asked the ECP to take notice of the brawl in Sindh Assembly when a member attempted to speak. Chaudhry Fawad also termed ECP decision of conducting Senate elections on the old procedure due to the shortage of time is a weak argument and stance when the government offered technological assistance to make the elections transparent. “ECP’s work is not merely limited to the distribution and collection of ballot papers but to make it transparent as well”, he observed.
The Supreme Court has clearly stated that the Senate election can be open for ECP to ensure transparency not the political parties. The court further suggested use of technology in the elections to bring transparency.
He said ECP should have decided to utilize the technology, which exists in our country, to ensure fair elections. “Our Struggle of openness and fairness in elections will continue even after the Senate elections and we will start our fight for open Senate elections again in the Parliament”, he said. He said that the sanctity of the upper house would be trampled because of those who would be elected in the Senate on the basis of money.
The minister was of the view that the matter of bringing transparency in Senate Elections had been debated for the last many years. Prime Minister Imran Khan has been demanding Senate elections through open ballot since the year 2013. Senate elections were held in many countries through open ballot and even India and the United States had also made reforms regarding elections, he added. Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party signed Charter of Democracy in the past which include holding senate elections through open ballot. However now the immature leadership of both the parties backtracked from their stance and opposing it. The minister also criticized Asif Ali Zardari who could not appear before the court due to illness but reached Lahore for Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Sohail Ali
Islamabad
