Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Excessive interference by Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) in the affairs of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) created multiple problems for political parties and these issues could be addressed through proper meeting between the heads of SCP and ECP.

The issue was raised in Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, which met in parliament house while Senator Saeed Ghani was in chair.

Such types of SCP decisions in Presidential and Local Bodies Elections create a lot of trouble and stressed the need for urgent meeting and discussion between Chief Election Commissioner and Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Saeed Ghani said the politician could not suggest that the Supreme Court of Pakistan stop judgments but would suggest stop excessive interference in election commission affairs already defined in the law. When the SCP continues its interference in ECP affairs, ultimately the politicians were suffering heavily.

Additional Secretary Election Commission, Sher Afghan said compliance on SCP judgments was mandatory for every government departments including ECP. “In certain case the ECP comply the SCP decision but also told Judges that certain decisions were against the law”, he maintained.

In Islamabad Local Government judgment, the ECP submitted the court that there was no law, so the direction was not right but the court ordered to go ahead.

FAFEEN Representative was of the view that in certain case the Court orders should be limited. Even in some cases, the issue was not brought under the notice of ECP and directly entertained by the Courts. While these cases could be addressed easily at ECP level because laws already exit there.

The Representative said if a matter was in Tribunal of the ECP, the Courts should not entertain these issues but was taken.

Chairman of the Committee Saeed Ghani said the law was very clear but the SCP did interference in many cases, which he suggested to stop immediately. Even some time ago, the ECP also raised its voice and said that SCP decisions created problem for ECP, he added.

Senator Nihal Hashmi of PML-N claimed that ECP’s Tribunal failed to decide a case immediately and it was usually delayed for long time. In such case, the people have no option but to contact courts. He suggested that there should be a timeframe for tribunal to make decision in any case.

The District Returning Officers (DROs) were becoming more powerful as they can do everything in last few hours of Election Day. The DROs must be taken officials of ECP.

Legal Expert Salman Akram Khuwaja apprised the committee that both India and Pakistan have similar laws about Election Commission but India gave more power to Indian Election Commission and its status was just like similar of SCP. However, the Indian ECP have done a lot of work as compared to ECP. He also suggested that for 14, 15, 16 and 17 should be simplified and understandable for candidates.

In response, the Additional Secretary ECP Sher Afghan said in ongoing reform process of the ECP, these forms were made more simple and even in Urdu language.

Saeed Ghani said that some time the ECP could not use its own power and wait for courts decisions then take certain action and suggested that ECP should use its power. The ECP has to consult regularly with political parties because they were main stakeholders of the decisions of ECP. He advised ECP to strengthen its organization and get proper support of all political parties.

The committee decided that the matter was utmost important and required more consultation in this regard, therefore, more inputs should be taken from experts and then would make final recommendations.

The committee also discussed “The Peoples Representation (Amendment) Bill introduced by Senator Sherry Rehman on March 7, 2016. According to the bill, there had been numerous reports at every election whereby women voters have been restrained from voting in the election as a result of an agreement or understanding between different persons which have included politicians, persons representing political parties, so called leaders of clergy and so called leaders of the community.

This disallowing of women to vote was a violation of the fundamental rights of women to vote, as well as discrimination under Article 25 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The lack of gender disaggregated voting data has time again been demanded by Pakistani society as not only an effective, transparent and clear method of documentation, but also as a tool to identify the gender breakdown of voting structures and to identify and understand the number of women voting, issues they face, how to eliminate them.

The bill was principally aimed at ensuring that in any election in any constituency if less than 10 % female voters have vote, the Election Commission of Pakistan shall declare the election of such a constituency void, and order re-polling within thirty daysof the declaration of the decision of the Commission.

The committee also decided that the bill required more discussions and suggested to finalize it after proper consideration.