ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's parliament seeks to introduce criminal proceedings against officials intentionally delaying election results on polling day by proposing amendments to the Elections Act on Tuesday in a bid to ensure a transparent electoral contest.
The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif introduced a number of amendments to the act just days before the five-year constitutional tenure of the present National Assembly expires.
Opposition members elected on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party's ticket raised objections to the hastily proposed legislation and urged Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to postpone the debate by at least a day. After consulting his staff, the speaker decided to defer the amendments to the legislation until tomorrow, Wednesday, to allow members sufficient time to scrutinize the proposed changes.
It is pertinent to mention that the ongoing National Assembly term is set to conclude on August 12, with the upcoming general elections anticipated to be held in October this year.
Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazir Tarar said the amendments to the Elections Act aimed at ensuring transparency surrounding the next national polls.
“If the delay [in polls result] is intentional or there is any collusion, criminal proceedings would be initiated against them [the officials responsible for it],” the law minister said while referring to one of the amendments.
He said the process to amend the legislation had been initiated on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s request along with certain ministries since there were things in it that needed to be fixed before the elections.
“The legislation regarding the elections act is very close to our heart,” he said, adding the presiding officers sometimes delayed results on the polling day in the past, leading people to question the transparency of the elections.
The law minister said the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms had decided that polling officers would take a snapshot of Form 45 after tabulating the results and transmit it to the ECP and the returning officer by 2am.
“The presiding officers would give a signed copy of the result to polling agents and proceedings against them can be initiated in case of failure [to do that],” he said, adding the last deadline for the final result would be 10am.
He noted that any delay would lead to criminal proceedings against the relevant officials.
The law minister said that all political parties, including the opposition PTI, gave their input to the government over the amendments.
Discussing other amendments, he said the word “accredited” was added to the bill related to the election observers while the definition for the word “technocrats” had also been fixed.
As per the proposed legislation, the election candidates would no longer be required to open exclusive bank account for the election expenses, he continued. Instead, they would provide one-week bank statement of their existing account to the ECP which shows their election expenses.
“We have done this work diligently, in the national interest and taking it as a service to the country,” the law minister said. “Neither any ill intention can be attributed to it nor any unnecessary haste.”
