PESHAWAR - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Thursday passed a unanimous resolution calling for holding of the upcoming local bodies polls in the province under judiciary's supervision in order to ensure more transparency in the whole process.
The assembly met with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair. The resolution carrying the signatures of members from both opposition and treasury benches was read out by Shah Hussain of JUI-F in the house, which was adopted unanimously.
The matter was earlier raised by Shah Hussain through a point of order. He said that the government is holding the local bodies' polls scheduled on May 30, 2015 under the supervision of district administration, which has created apprehensions that it will not be transparent.
On this occasion, the parliamentary leader of QWP Sikandar Hayat Sherpao said that local bodies' polls on May 30 and the announcement of results after the passage of one week is creating doubts.
ANP lawmaker Syed Jaffar Shah called for fair and transparent polls within minimum expenditure on one day.
Manawar Khan Advocate of JUI-F said that both elections and its results should be announced on the same day.
Raja Faisal Zaman of the PML-N said that the elections should be held in one go without any phase. He said that elections should be held under the supervision of judiciary without any delay.
Provincial Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE), Shah Farman assured that all apprehensions regarding transparency will be redressed. He said that the elections required 90 million ballot papers. He said that the Election Commission should be told that the printing of ballot papers through private printing presses and at a time handling of seven ballot papers could make a question mark on the transparency of the polls.
He that elections for village and neighbourhoods on one day and then holding polls for tehsil and district councils on the second day will be better.
Senior Minister for Local Government and Rural Development (LG&RD), Inayatullah said that the concern regarding transparency of the local bodies' polls prevails both inside and outside the house.
He said that he himself is in favour that instead of district administration the local bodies' polls should be held under the supervision of judiciary. He said that he is fully supporting this stance of the opposition, but the responsibility, he said, rest, with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
He on behalf of the provincial government appealed the Election Commission for holding the elections under the supervision of judiciary. He proposed the passage of a unanimous resolution by the house in this regard.
He also called for taking into consideration the opinion of the house regarding the issue of holding of polls on two different days. He said that the Election Commission itself should decide to hold it in one day or in two days.
However, he said in his personal opinion, he has no objection either to hold it one day or in two phases. Later, the Speaker Asad Qaiser suspended the rules to allow the mover to move the resolution, which the house adopted unanimously.