LAHORE - Former law minister SM Zafar has welcomed the government's decision to give up the idea of bringing about an amendment to the Constitution for 'transparency' in the Senate elections, slated for March 5.
"Writing names on the ballots is already in conflict with the Constitution", he said in a press statement here on Thursday.
To substantiate his point, the veteran leader referred to Article 226  which states that "All elections under the Constitution, other than those of the prime minister and the chief minister, shall be by secret ballot.”
There are reports that now the prime minister plans to meet with leaders of various political parties to evolve a methodology to obviate the possibility of horse trading in the elections to the 52 seats of the upper house of parliament.
Zafar said: "Secrecy of ballot is the basic and fundamental aspect of our unanimously drafted Constitution. We have played with it from time to time for personal prejudices.  Let us stop it now".
He expressed the hope that "parliament will not surrender to corruption which, the government, political parties, leaders and ethics of the society has to control. Because of their failure, do not surrender before corruption which has flourished after NRO; this time the dragon of corruption will come riding on the shoulders of the Construction".