ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called the meeting of parliamentary parties heads on Friday (today) to discuss ways and means for checking horse-trading in upcoming Senate elections slated for March 5.
Sources in the government informed that after facing stiff opposition from mainstream Opposition parties in the Parliament on bringing 22nd Amendment to change the mode of Senate elections from secret ballot to show of hand, ruling PML-N would table other suggestions including bringing consensus candidates from all the four provinces after defining share of all the stakeholders commensurate to their strength in the respective Provincial Assembly, to block the way of those engaged in purchasing the votes of MPs.
Some of the insiders in the ruling PML-N were not much optimistic about legislation before the Senate elections owing to serious reservations shown by some main Opposition parties and even those sitting in coalition with PML-N in government.
Sources said that PPP wanted a comprehensive electoral reforms package and their leadership had proposed to PML-N teams which held meetings with them in past couple of days that the proposal of change the voting from secret ballot to show of hand or through open ballot paper containing the constituency number or name of the voter to restrain the voter to stay within the discipline of the party be deferred for the time being and should be referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms to have detailed deliberation on it before giving it some Constitutional shape.
In their meeting with PML-N leadership on Wednesday, PPP leadership said that at this juncture when the process of Senate elections was in its midst bringing Constitutional amendment would not be advisable and other options to block the way of horse-trading should be looked into.
Sources further said that Awami National Party as well as Qaumi Watan Party leadership though wanted to see end to horse-trading, but they were opposed to the legislation in haste and wanted the Parliament do extensive debate on the matter before bringing some Constitutional amendment on the subject.
Parliamentary sources said that the proposed piece of legislation would give absolute powers in the hands of party chief, who would write or wrong impose his decisions on the party MPs making the Parliamentarians stooges in the hands of their party heads, who are already wielding abnormal powers a glimpse of which had been shown in the process of awarding party tickets for the Senate elections.
Though for his own reasons JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was not ready to support the 22nd Amendment to change the mode of Senate elections from secret ballot to show of hand and when PML-N team comprising Ishaq Dar and Kh Saad Rafique met him at his residence on Wednesday he simply refused to extend support to government and demanded of them that first their concerns on 21st Constitutional Amendment should be addressed then they would consider extending support to government on any future legislation.
Sources in the government said that the only option on which the stakeholders could agree is to bring consensus candidates from KP and Balochistan and evolve some internal mechanism from keeping check on their party MPs from deviating from the party line.
Sources aware of the developments taking place on this front informed that PPP is having just five MPAs in KP Assembly while the party leadership wanted two seats from the province for which the party would be requiring another 31 votes.
Sources further said JUI-F also wanted two seats from the province while independently they could hardly manage to get one of its candidates elected on general seat. So, in the given situation when the parties wanted to have share beyond their numerical strength in the Provincial Assemblies then obviously these parties would going to manage these votes either by making alliance with other smaller parties or by greasing palms of the MPs of other parties.
DAR FAILS TO GET PTI NOD
Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar could not get confirmation in connection with the PTI’s participation in the parliamentary parties' meeting at the PM House today (Friday); however, Jahangir Tareen has fully endorsed the stance of the ruling PML-N on checking horse-trading in the upcoming Senate elections.
Dar along with State Minister for Information Technology Ms Anusha Rehman visited Tareen’s to discuss the ways and means to block horse-trading in the upcoming elections particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
Sources aware of the deliberations of the meeting informed The Nation that the PML-N team wanted the PTI to join the government in legislation to change the mode of Senate elections from secret ballot to show-of-hand, but the PTI refused to join the National Assembly till the formation of judicial commission. However, Jahangir Tareen fully endorsed the government's move and said that their moral support would be with them as party's chairman Imran Khan had already commended the Prime Minister's decision to go for legislation on this matter.
Talking to media persons after the meeting, Dar said that both parties were on the same page on eliminating culture of horse-trading from national politics. He also invited the PTI to participate in the meeting of parliamentary leaders to be held on Friday (today).
He said after contacting almost all political parties of the country the government had decided that polling should be open and identifiable in the upcoming Senate election to be held on March 5.
He said in order to root out the menace of horse-trading and making the Senate election transparent, new amendments are being considered to allow changes in the existing procedures and rules for conducting election for the Senate seats.
On the occasion, Tareen said that he would talk to high command of the party and after discussing the matter, the leadership would decide whether to participate in the parliamentary leaders meeting or not. He said his party welcomed the federal cabinet's decision for making the Senate election transparent.
"It has been our stance from the beginning that there should not be any secret voting in the Senate election for curbing horse-trading culture in the country," he added.
He said the government should evolve a mechanism to discourage politicians from selling their votes adding that all horse-traders should be punished accordingly.
To a question, Dar said major differences on forming a judicial commission were removed between the two parties and only three points were to be decided which, he hoped, would be resolved soon.
"We are trying our best to resolve this issue as it is our inordinate desire that the PTI should return back to the Parliament as soon as possible", he added.
To another question, the minister said the World Bank has formally informed the government that Pakistan has once again become eligible for availing the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) funding after a gap of three years. He said the IBRD funding facility was suspended in March 2012 because at that time Pakistan could not fulfil the required conditions regarding macro-economic stability.
Dar said as Pakistan is now maintaining foreign exchange reserves of more than 2.5 months of projected imports and has satisfied other criteria of World Bank under the Country Partnership strategy (CPS), it will now be able to avail $2 billion worth of IBRD funding during the four year period of Fiscal Years 2015-19 with annual limit of $500 million.
He said about 21 months ago, the country's foreign reserves stood at only US $3.8 billion whereas now it has crossed $16 billion. He said all indicators are moving on positive trajectory and with IBRD funding facility, foreign and local investors’ trust would be boosted.
He also appreciated holding of investors’ conference in Dubai by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government saying that other provinces should also follow them as it would improve the overall image of the country.
State Minister for Information Technology, Anusha Rehman and Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak also attended the meeting.