ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has staged a walk-out of the parliamentary committee on electoral reform in protest against the committee for not considering the party’s proposals for meaningful electoral reforms, placed before the subcommittee in April 2017.
The PTI lawmakers Dr Arif Alvi, Shafqat Mehmood and Dr Shireen Mazari in the media talks lashed out at the government for what they dubbed ‘the non-seriousness’ to implement the much-need electoral reforms.
They said that the ECP has lost its credibility in holding those responsible for the wrongdoings pointed out in the SC report, on PTI rigging petition on the 2013 election.
They said that the failure of the commission to ensure fair and free elections clearly reflected in the most recently held national and provincial by-elections in NA-260, and PS-114, where parties other than PTI have protested over rigging.
Shafqat Mehmood said that ECP should be reconstituted, as the incumbent commission is not enabling to conduct fair, free and transparent polls.
He said that the interim government should be formed in consultation with all political parties.
Dr Alvi said that the government did nothing during the last several months for reforming the electoral system but just wasting time, as the party’s proposals got rejected at the eleventh hour.
He said that under the circumstances, PTI insisted that the next general elections should be held under a reconstituted ECP as the credibility of the present ECP has been seriously undermined.
PTI lawmakers Dr Arif Alvi, Shafqat Mehmood and Dr Shireen in the letter to chairman electoral reform committee said that the PTI has played an active role in pushing for electoral reforms in the electoral reform committee, and while main reforms have been initiated through the subcommittee in shape of the bill placed before the committee, PTl’s core proposals for meaningful electoral reforms, placed before the subcommittee in April 2017, remain unaddressed.
The PTI said that over 8 million eligible Pakistani citizens with NICOP and Pakistani passports are legally entitled to vote, but for so called “technical” reasons ECP has failed to ensure they are allowed to do so.
The letter reads that NADRA’s proposal to the parliamentary electoral reforms committee and ECP regarding confirmed possibility of holding overseas election through a secure electronic system was not taken up by the ECP, despite a Supreme Court decision on ensuring voting rights to Overseas Pakistanis.
Moreover, the letter reads that an autonomous, strong, financially and administratively independent, transparently-appointed ECP is the key to the holding of free and fair Elections.
In this context, PTI’s critical demand that in order for the greatly strengthened ECP to have the recognized legitimacy, it was imperative that the next general elections be conducted by a reconstituted ECP under the new rules has not even been considered.
PTI insisted that biometric verification of all voters must take place before a ballot paper is issued at every polling station. Biometric verification will enable an independent record of the number of genuine voters at every polling station and therefore mitigate the stuffing or subsequent manipulation of the election result.
In view of the above, PTI feels it cannot support the half-baked electoral reforms that the government is seeking to push through.
The meeting held on 19th December 2016 of the sub-committee on the voting of Oversea Pakistanis, EVMs and biometric identification unanimously decided to submit the following recommendations that are being made on the voting of Overseas Pakistanis.
During previous meetings after hearing proposals from many foreign companies and in discussions with NADRA and ECP, it was decided that this project can be implemented indigenously by NADRA itself.
