Fawad Chaudhry Says ECP Has No Rights to Raise Questions About the Parliament

Fawad Chaudhry Says ECP Has No Rights to Raise Questions About the Parliament

Fawad Chaudhry Says ECP Has No Rights to Raise Questions About the Parliament

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain. Image: file

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Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is an administrative body that is bound to implement the laws imposed by the Parliament.

Briefing the media about the decisions taken in the federal cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said that ECP is not bound to raise any question about the Parliament. Likewise, he said that the Parliament has the power to make laws while only Supreme Court has the full authority to declare whether the law is in accordance with the constitution or not.

The political leadership has the right to decide how elections should be done, he further added.

Fawad said that the government has already given a transparent and immaculate process to conduct the elections. This decision was made with all the stakeholders in favour.

In response to Shehbaz Sharif’s proposal for holding an all-parties conference over electoral reforms, Fawad said that this is part of a conspiracy to weaken the Parliament.

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The government will discuss the electoral reforms only with the parliamentary leaders. “We do not deem the persons like Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Maulana Fazlur Rehman as stockholders in the system,” he added.

Fawad requested the ECP to take steps to hold the upcoming local body and bye-elections using electronic voting machines (EVM). “This will not only help overcome the shortcomings in the electoral process but also strengthen the people’s confidence in the EVMs,” he said, adding that it would eventually ensure the use of the gadgets in the next general election.

He said the government was also committed to granting voting rights to the 8.5 million overseas Pakistanis by introducing I-voting or internet voting mechanism.

He described the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as “beyond comprehension” in their refusal to allow expats voting rights. “They are, in fact, afraid of the expats as they consider them (expats) as the staunch supporters of Prime Minister Imran Khan,” he added.

Fawad Chaudhry said the overseas Pakistanis have been immensely contributing to the country’s economy. The estimates show that the remittances from overseas Pakistanis are around Rs1,000 billion per annum.

He further added that the expats are sending a huge amount of remittances as they have complete faith in Imran Khan’s leadership. “On the contrary, they did not send the money during the regimes of PPP and PML-N as they knew about the corrupt practices of their leaders Asif Ali Zardari, and Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif,” he added. “The overseas Pakistanis are of the considered opinion that the two opposition parties’ leadership are corrupt and will devour their (sent) money,” he remarked.

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He stated that the meeting approved the ‘Public Properties (Removal of Encroachment) Bill, 2021’ which aims to reclaim state territory from grabbers. The bill also recommends fines and penalties for land grabbers and encroachers as well as the establishment of a special tribunal.

He said that the cabinet allowed to import of one million tonnes of wheat to meet the increasing demand of the commodity. Import of three million tonnes was already allowed by the government, he added.

The minister said that the cabinet approved the appointments of Sajid Baloch as the Executive Director of International Vocational and Technical Training Commission, Aslan khan as the chairman of Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) and Asim Rauf as Chief Executive Director of Drugs Regulatory Authority.

Fawad Chaudhry stated that the cabinet asked the Ministry of Finance to give a complete report on the cancellation of various bank loans. He stated that a committee was formed under the direction of the Minister for Human Rights to investigate issues concerning a housing society for Supreme Court employees.

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