Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz lauded the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the tradition of the secret ballot within the Senate elections and accused the incumbent government of being afraid of the power of the vote.
“Mark my words, no measures similar to the breakdown of the results transmission system (RTS) system and the Daska by-election will be tolerated. Why are you afraid of the power of the vote?” she asked on Twitter.
She added that the Constitution has proven itself superior to the “conspiratorial ordinances and ill-intentioned references”, taunting the government for creating a fuss about the use of technology to trace the votes polled at the Senate elections.
Similarly, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar has said that the government has been miserably defeated before the Senate elections as the Supreme Court has given its opinion that the Senate elections will be held according to the constitution.
In a statement on Monday, he said that the government wanted to avoid the Senate elections but failed. It is so ridiculous that the government spokesmen are declaring this opinion as if it was their victory. The Supreme Court has responded in the negative to the question by the government, he maintained.
Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khohar said that these spokesmen have no answer to the questions like has the Supreme Court asked to hold the Senate elections by show of hands as the government wanted. They also do not have the answer to the question that is the Presidential order effective after the Supreme Court’s opinion.
The PPP leader said that March 03, is the day of the victory of Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani and the defeat of the candidate of selected Prime Minister Imran Khan. This puppet government will be defeated in the Senate election similar to the defeats in bye-elections, he concluded.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain
Monday asserted that the opposition intentionally wanted to make Senate elections disputed.
“The opposition knew they would not be able to win the Senate elections and consider horse-trading as the only option to win”, he stated while talking to media outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The minister was accompanied by Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood and Senior leader Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Babar Awan.
Chaudhry Fawad said that the delegation from the government side had expressed full confidence over the ECP as the final decision of the ECP to prevail.
“We have expressed full confidence over ECP considering the fact that if the institutions will be strengthened, the country will become strong”, he stated.
“Secrecy of ballot, as per SC decision, will be kept for the political parties but not for ECP which would empower ECP to conduct inquiry if there will be any allegation of horse-trading raised by any member”, he said. However, the final decision would be of ECP, the minister added.
This was the principle on which Prime Minister Imran Khan and our cabinet had filed reference before Supreme Court, he said.
He emphasized that the Supreme Court’s decision should be implemented
in letter and spirit.
He said this was the principle for which Prime Minister Imran Khan had been struggling since the year 2013.
“We have requested the ECP to implement the decision of Supreme Court which empowers the commission to ensure complete transparency in election and eliminate the chances of horse-trading and corruption”, he said.
PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had signed the Charter of Democracy in that regard in the year 2006 but PML-N stepped back before formally pursuing the law, he said.
He maintained that PML-N, PPP and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) did not have a majority in the upper house and they could not win the elections.
“This is the reason they are against every such effort that brings transparency in the election. Otherwise, there would be no need of horse-trading if they knew that they would get maximum votes in Senate election,” he stated.
“We have presented our stance in front of ECP with sufficient arguments”, he said.
Around 1,700 total ballot papers would be required to be printed for the elections for which we had the required technology, he added. ”If we can print a big number of currency notes in Pakistan on a daily basis which is a highly secure tender why not 1,700 ballot papers,” he asked.
