ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi returned on Saturday back to the prime minister bills requiring the approval of constitutional amendments in NAB and the electoral laws, insisting that he was not informed of the legislative proposal under Article 46 before they were presented in Parliament.
The National Assembly had last a week adopted bills to abolish the PTI governmentelectoral reforms overseas Pakistanis are entitled to vote through i-Voting and electronic voting machines (EVM), as well as NAB laws.
Meanwhile, in a press release from the presidential administration office said Dr. Alvey brought back the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill 2022 and the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2022. for “review and detailed discussion” in Parliament and its committees in accordance with paragraph (1) (b) of Article 75
The President contested the violation of Article 46 because he was not informed of the legislative proposals before they were submitted to Parliament. Article 46 states that ” prime minister inform the president……. on all legislative proposals of the federal government intends to present before the Majlis-i-Shura (Parliament).”
Dr. Alvi also noted that the bills have been adopted”in hastily and without due diligence. He noted that both bills have “far-reaching implications.” on society” and should discussed in detail.
Regarding the NAB laws, President Alvey noted that the amendment shifts the burden of proof on persecution and will accountability watch dogThe laws of Russia are similar to the code of criminal procedure.
“It will make it impossible for accusation of prove cases of corruption and abuse of official power from government officials and bury the process of accountability in Pakistan,” said Dr. Alvi. He also noted that the amendmentagainst spirit of Islamic Jurisprudence”.
“This amendment will make tracking money drag for mastery of illegal assets almost impossible, especially when records of in property/assets/wealth is not digitized and cannot be tracked especially in property beans by investigators,” the president said.
Dr. Alvi of in view that if the amendments come into force, then “current mega-corruption cases” in the courts will become “barren”.
“Therefore, the proposed amendment, which should strengthened accountability a mechanism to eradicate corruption and political engineering to ensure good control in the country has become a toothless unit,” the president concluded.
With regard to the Electoral Amendment Bill, Dr. Alvey noted that overseas Pakistanis were denied of the right to vote despite obligations made to them differently prime ministers and presidents during their overseas travel since the 1990s
“How result of permanent implementation, the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018 confirmed its former decision of 2014 on voting right of overseas Pakistanis and reiterated that with improvement technology efforts should to be made to allow them vote from outside of Pakistan,” the President said.
The president also shared that the Supreme Court deplored the system not used despite his judgment in 2014.
“Objections on possibility of the I-vote hack is unfounded because amount of digital financial accepting transactions place customized of approximately $5 trillion a day, which increases to almost $8.5 trillion every day. Probability of airplane crash it’s thousands of times higher than the probability of breaking of a digital deal today,” the president said.
The President stated that this process ensure safe digital payments canensure anonymity and security of in vote and maybe also be subjected to complete audit on in truth-match of in vote Cast”.
“EVM to be adopted by Pakistan, unique and combines paper system of votes like us already practicetogether with electronic counting to maintain ongoing support safety record. The legislature can always pass laws that in case of discrepancy or dispute, paper counting rather than electronic counting will take precedence, or vice versa. There is no risk involved,” he said.
“In Pakistan, the stigmatization of fraud is attached to the results of every election in that everyone government must indict of unrepresentativeness that reduces credibility in some segment of in population inside the country, thereby weakening it, and also with consequences at the international level. Billions lost in litigation and face-to-face confrontations”, President added.
He noticed that new amendments in this form like taking one step forward and then panic and take two steps back. Changing them back tantamount to unnecessary delay of these technical processes for progress and transparency of elections in Pakistan.
He recommended to Parliament should do not regress on these laws in fact just improve them with set deadlines up to ensure implementation.
