LAHORE: A day after Prime Minister Imran Khan announced going to the apex court to hold the Senate elections ahead of schedule through show of hands, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz on Thursday declared that the opposition would not let this wish of the ‘selected’ fulfilled and requested the institutions not to accept his ‘unconstitutional’ demands.

The opposition says since Imran Khan has lost control over his party lawmakers, he rushes to seek a ‘show of hands’ process in the Senate polls to ensure that none of them could defect.

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of 11 opposition parties, has also announced seeking legal remedies to stop the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government from going ahead with its proposed plan with regard to the Senate elections.

Addressing PM Khan at a presser at her Jati Umra residence here on Thursday, Maryam Nawaz said: “You had used [intelligence] agencies to manipulate the election [no-confidence motion by the opposition] against the Senate chairman [Sadiq Sanjrani]. Now when your government has been weakened…you realised the importance of show of hands. Why are you making the Supreme Court controversial and dragging it in politics?”

She said the government could not bring ordinance to change the schedule and method of the Senate elections.

PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman also declared that the government could not change the Senate election method through presidential ordinance.

“Only parliament can bring about an amendment in this respect and the Supreme Court can have its interpretation,” Maryam Nawaz said.

Similarly, she said the Election Commission of Pakistan had its own constitutional head, but the ‘fake’ premier was undermining his authority. “After becoming the head of FIA, NAB and agencies, now Imran Khan has become the head of ECP by himself. This man is bent upon destroying the institutions and the Constitution,” she lamented, asking Mr Khan to stop playing with the institutions.

The de facto president of the PML-N, Maryam clarified that the opposition was not against the method of show of hands but it would not allow the ‘fake’ prime minister to change it at his will.

“The nation is looking up to the ECP not to accept any illegal orders of the premier,” Ms Nawaz said, adding that on the day of the PDM rally in Lahore, Imran Khan was playing with his dogs which showed that he was nervous as the days of his government were numbered. She said the PDM would take legal remedies to check the government’s plan.

On the other hand, the attorney general for Pakistan clarified what the government meant about the show of hands method. “The government has not proposed holding the Senate elections through show of hands as this method is not possible in the Senate polls, which is based on principles of proportionate representation where the voter elects more than one candidate,” Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan told Dawn on Thursday.

He said the government had in fact proposed an open ballot as against the secret ballot which was used in the past. “The name of the voter would be written on the back of the ballot paper and would be open to scrutiny,” he added.

Prime Minister Khan had advocated for a show of hand method, saying “everyone knew that money was used to buy votes in the previous Senate elections. And this is why this time the government wants to hold the elections through a show of hands”.

He said the PTI had expelled its 20 MPAs on charges of selling their votes in the previous Senate polls.

In reply to a question about PM Khan’s statement that his government would hold by-polls if the opposition lawmakers tendered their resignations en masse, Maryam Nawaz said: “The government cannot hold by-polls on 500 seats. After resignations we will not sit idle.”

Flanked by Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Ms Nawaz dispelled the impression that the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and her uncle Shehbaz Sharif was against resigning from assemblies and stressing the need for national dialogue.

“Shehbaz Sharif said his decision will be the same what Nawaz Sharif or PDM takes in this regard,” she said.

About party MNA Javed Latif’s claim that some party leaders were playing on both sides of the wicket, she said every effort was made to break the PML-N, but every lawmaker had braved the hardship and was standing by the leadership at this testing time.

The PML-N vice president angrily responded to the PTI criticism that her father Nawaz Sharif was eating pizza in London despite illness. “What’s wrong in eating pizza? Doctors don’t stop a heart or platelet patient to have pizza occasionally.”

She said that on the invitation of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari she would go to an event in connection with Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary (on Dec 27) in Ghari Khuda Bakhsh and would also visit her grave.

Discussing the government’s decision to hold polls for 51 seats of the Senate, a month before the schedule, PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman said: “It is quite clear that this is being done to disrupt the PDM movement, and to make up for unhappy government lawmakers whose votes PTI is not sure of. But what the federal government does not realise is that this is an illegal and unconstitutional act. The term of the current senators will end on March 11, 2021, so holding election before that is wrong on many counts and lead to the constitutional crisis.”

Ms Rehman asked how the Senate polls could be held before the senators’ terms expired. “Who is the government to change the dates when the authority lies with the ECP to formulate the schedule of the Senate elections? Under Article 213 of the Constitution, only the ECP has the right to announce a date for elections. What is the government’s urgency that a forty-year-old schedule is being changed?” she asked, adding that it was obvious that the PTI government was extremely rattled by the opposition and by the prospect of losing its own disgruntled members.

“Article 226 of the Constitution explicitly provides for all elections other than those of the prime minister and chief ministers to be held, by saying they ‘shall’ be held by secret ballot. There should be no confusion after this,” she said.

Former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani said: “The voting in the Senate polls by show of hands requires a constitutional amendment and no purpose will be served by sending a reference to the Supreme Court.”

Senator Sherry Rehman said: “The Constitution of Pakistan cannot be changed on the whims of this government and it can certainly not be bypassed. The ECP rules cannot override the Constitution, which is the backdoor the government is seeking because they are clearly rattled by the opposition. Only parliament can make laws and despite this government’s efforts to make it redundant, we will not let them bulldoze the rights of our parliament.”

Nasir Iqbal from Islamabad also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2020