SC questions absence of legislation for terming vote casting mandatory

Hearing a petition seeking reduction and regulation of election expenses incurred by political parties during electioneering, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday asked why had political parties not legislated to make casting of vote mandatory.
He said this while heading a three-member bench comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, which was hearing a petition filed by a noted lawyer Abid Hasan Minto on behalf of Workers Party. The chief justice noted that a person who secured at least 50 percent votes in polling should be declared winner, instead of a person who bags only 11 percent votes.
“If some one files a petition against the alleged militant wings of political parties, we hear it,” the chief justice said during the hearing. He said the court’s verdicts in almost all important cases were not being implemented and the judiciary was ridiculed. Justice Khilji Arif Hussain said, “Now we will not take it light and initiate strict action against those, who flout the court orders.”
The court noted that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had failed to exercise its constitutional powers to monitor the expenditure of election campaigns. The court said it wished that there should be a culture of transparent elections in the country, in which there should be no projection of money. According to the petitioner, heavy expenditures on elections were a main hurdle in flourishing of real democracy in the country. He said culture of investment in politics should be ended. Earlier on February 21, 2012, the Supreme Court had put on notice 26 political parties, including the People’s Party and the PML-N, to come up with replies on the petition against heavy expenditures on elections. According to the ECP, only 26 political parties are currently functioning in the country.
The petition has also pleaded for barring political parties from holding huge rallies and putting up banners. Instead, the petition suggested, parties should conduct door-to-door campaigning and be given equal slot on the Pakistan Television for presentation of their manifesto.