MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday that any Supreme Court ruling on the proposed free vote in the Senate elections would be open-heartedly welcomed by the government.
The Election Reform Ordinance 2021, in which the forthcoming Senate elections will be held by free balloting, was signed by President Dr Arif Alvi on Saturday. The government has also requested the Supreme Court’s view, questioning whether without a constitutional amendment the polls can be held.
“The ordinance for the Senate elections is not aimed at giving anyone any favour, but to bring transparency in the electoral process,” Qureshi said this afternoon while addressing the media in Multan.
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The minister instructed the opposition not to establish a chaotic situation in the country. “All of Pakistan knows about the buying and selling [of votes] in the Senate,” he added, adding that “this bidding in the upper house of the parliament should stop.”
Unfortunately, he said, the People’s Party of Pakistan (PPP) and the Muslim League of Pakistan-Nawaz (PML-N) want to buy people’s loyalty. “We ask the PPP and PML-N as to why they want to evade the situation today when they had earlier supported open balloting under the Charter of Democracy.”
The opposition groups, primarily led by the Democratic Movement of Pakistan (PDM), gave a strong opposition to the opening of the Senate vote, calling it an effort by the government to keep loyalties from being modified by its own lawmakers.
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