The opposition in the National Assembly on 18th August, objected to the proposed elections bill in its present form and sought significant amendments to it, with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) ruling out the possibility of transparent polls under the present Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The Elections Bill 2017 proposes up to Rs100,000 fine or three years imprisonment for lawmakers if irregularities are found in the details of their assets. It also suggests that the membership of lawmakers should also be terminated if they fail to submit the details. The bill proposes additional powers for the ECP, enabling it to summon the services of any institution to probe any irregularity in the asset details submitted by lawmakers.
Back ground
The Election Bill 2017 was laid down by then Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Election Reforms which prepared the document in two years’ consultative process for which its sub-committee, headed by Law Minister Zahid Hamid, met for 70 times.
The 33-member parliamentary committee was formed by National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s instructions for electoral reforms amid Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s 2014 sit-in against PML-N’s alleged rigging in 2013 general elections.
The committee which consolidated nine different laws and ordinances regarding electoral process also gave its recommendations to the lower house for the 27th constitution amendment bill.
The draft bill to check mushroom growth of political parties which emerged ‘overnight’, it had been proposed that any party seeking registration must have at least 1,000 members. Such parties would have to deposit Rs100,000 in security.
It has been proposed to enhance the election expense limit for the national and provincial assemblies to Rs4 million and Rs2m from Rs1.5m and Rs1, respectively. The limit for Senate election will remain unchanged at Rs1.5m.
Likewise, the nomination fee had been proposed to be enhanced to Rs30,000 for National Assembly candidates and Rs20,000 for candidates of provincial assemblies and Senate.
The administrative and financial powers of the ECP have been strengthened in the draft bill to issue specific instructions which will be treated as orders of a high court. All of the ECP’s expenditures would be borne by the federal government like those of the Supreme Court.
Opposition’s Stance
Taking part in the debate on the bill, which unifies eight different laws pertaining to electoral processes, PTI’s Dr Shirin Mazari ruled out transparent polls if four key demands of her party were not met. She said fair elections were not possible under the present Election Commission of Pakistan and called for its reconstitution before fresh elections. She stressed the need for implementing a plan to facilitate overseas Pakistanis to cast their votes, saying polls without their participation would be meaningless.
She recalled that National Database and Registration Authority officials had informed a subcommittee of the parliamentary panel on electoral reforms that it was possible to provide out-of-country voting facility to the overseas Pakistanis.
Ms Mazari also said that fair polls were not possible without authentication of voters through biometric verification machines at polling stations. The caretaker government should be selected through a parliamentary committee, she added.
PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar called for improving the quality of ballot papers and said the paper with watermark should be used for the purpose.
Sahibzada Tariqullah of Jamaat-i-Islami warned the PML-N leadership against any attempt to amend Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. “Any amendment to these two articles will be considered treason with the Constitution,” he said.
The JI parliamentary leader said elections should be held on the basis of proportional electorate and called for increasing the limit of election expenses by candidates. He also objected to the condition of minimum 10 per cent female votes of total turnout in a constituency for a valid election.
Naeema Kishwar Khan of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) also criticised the bill for its restriction of 10pc female vote cast for the election validity and said the ECP could not force anyone to cast vote at any cost. She said allotting 5pc quota to women contenders was also against the spirit of democracy and the Constitution.
The JUI-F legislators also strongly criticised the issue of giving access to political agents of searchable data containing pictures of women and asked the government to review it because it might be a security risk for women.
Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai observed that ending the role of secret agencies was a sine qua non for holding free and fair elections in the country. He alleged that secret agencies were meddling in the working of democratic institutions and playing a role in elections. “This is the only country in the world where politicians are invented by them [agencies], they are given money and then they are dubbed corrupt by them.”