Federal Cabinet takes big stride, clears bill for open balloting for Senate election

ISLAMABAD; The federal cabinet ,which met here on Saturday, has taken a big leap forward to cleanse Pakistan’s electoral system by approving a proposed amendment in the constitution to hold Senate election through open balloting .The cabinet meeting chaired by prime minister, Imran Khan, cleared the proposed amendment in the constitution for meaningful changes in the electoral process of the upper house. If both houses..Senate (upper house) and national assembly (lower house) approve the amendment, the proposed changes in the electoral process of the Senate will become a part of the constitution . Sources privy to the new development told NEWSMAN on the condition of not mentioning his name that the proposed constitutional amendment to change the existing system of secret voting for Senate election to open balloting was introduced in the federal cabinet meeting on Saturday for approval on the special direction of the prime minister. The proposed amendment in the constitution, if sailed through the parliament, will be of far-reaching impact for Pakistan’s political system. These sources claim that on the instruction of the prime minister the government legal team was working on the proposed amendment in the constitution for months. Pakistan has a secret votting system for the election of the upper house and it was considered as a breeder of financial corruption in the political system of the ciuntry. Almost every Senate election in the past was marred with the allegations of horse-trading. In the last Senate election, many political parties like PPP had levelled allegations of horse-trading on its political opponents to get elected more candidates.The election process of secret votting resulted in major distortions in the system . This system also was abused by the elite to get into the Senate and use their official position for making ill-gotto money. If you go through the directory of the Senate, you can find the same faces coming to the upper house again and again These familiar faces had nothing to do with the parties which fielded them for Senate election. Their only power and qualification was their money. The ultimate losers of this money-run system were the committed party workers who did chant slogans “our leader zindabad”, but their leaders needed money and they made the same ‘Chamak’ a basic principle for award of tickets for Senate election. Saturday’s development of replacing secret votting with opening balloting will definitely shut down shops of many parties, which in the past, were using them to make billions . It will help improve Pakistan’s political culture which today stands polluted with the serious allegation of horse- trading. In the case of Senate election every prominent political party was involved in selling the Senate seats to known businessmen and elite of the ciuntry.Pakistan’ s upper house has 103 seats. Half of these seats fall vacant after every three years. The tenure of the Senate is for 6 years. The parties get their share in the Senate on the basis of their seats in the electoral college. The Senate election for half of its seats will be held n March 2021. Advocate Bilal Raza when was approached for comments on the proposed constitutional amendment said ” As a legal expert, I support this amendment as it can weed out corruption and horse -trading from our political system.

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