2023 will see world’s most expensive elections if EVMs are used, fears Azma Bukhari

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Punjab Spokesperson, Azma Bukhari on Friday feared that if in the next general elections, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were inducted, they would become “one of the most expensive elections in the world.”

Speaking to the media outside Punjab Assembly, she said that as per the estimation of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the country would require some Rs150-billion for EVM-based elections in 2023.

“Previously, his [PM Imran] sister, Alima’s sewing machines were the talk of the town and now her brother’s EVMs.”

Read more: Parliament approves use of EVMs, voting rights to overseas Pakistanis amid ruckus

“I want to tell PM Imran that they are not the elections of Bani Gala in 2023, but the elections of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” said Bukhari. 

Taking a jibe at the last joint session of the parliament, she said, “Everyone knows how people are brought in such sessions. Amir Liaquat Hussain also said that he was ‘brought’ for the session.”

She maintained for such a government that could make the presiding officer go missing, stealing the elections with EVMs was no big deal. 

“Let me tell you that they [government] will receive shoes hurled at them or verbal abuses from the masses, not votes,” the PML-N leader predicted. 

Bukhari recalled that on October 4, an application was submitted to the Punjab Information Commission, seeking details of assets allegedly owned by the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar but failed.

“I request Special Assistant to the Chief Minister (SACM) on Information and Special Initiatives Hasaan Khawar, to provide the details at the earliest, otherwise, I will be left with no other option but to move the court,” Bukhari insisted. 

She claimed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had looted Covid-19 funds, and no one could ask them. “People are now dying of dengue, but no one in the government cares.” 

‘Punjab govt was not ready for smog’

The PML-N Punjab spokesperson also slammed the centre and the Punjab government for not taking timely measures as smog again blanketed Lahore.

On November 17, the provincial capital topped the list of cities in the world with the most polluted air again after air quality levels turned hazardous yesterday.

Read more: ‘We thought he had Covid but it was smog’: Life in polluted Pakistan

Turning her guns towards Prime Minister Imran Khan and [Punjab] Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, she said, “Unfortunately, since they are part of the federal and the Punjab governments, Pakistan is at the top of every negative list.” 

Bukhari alleged that the Punjab Environment Minister had told the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) that “whosoever talks about smog, must be taken into custody.”

While criticising the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Bukhari said, “PPP should ask themselves a few questions too. We do not have any competition with them, but they have issues.”