JUI-F to move top court against election laws: Hafiz Hamdullah

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema e Islam-F (JUI-F) Senator Maulana Hafiz Hamdullah on Sunday said his party would approach the Supreme Court against the legislation related to elections in the country.

“How elections can be transparent, when there is no transparency in legislation,” Hafiz Hamdullah said while talking to media in Islamabad.

Terming November 17, the day of joint session of the parliament, the darkest day in the history of parliament, he said his party had completely rejected the laws. He said it was an illegitimate and unconstitutional legislation by force. He said the rules were violated in the joint sitting of the parliament to pass the bills.

On inflation, the JUI-F leader said inflation was touching the skies. He reminded Prime Minister Imran Khan that he used to say that when oil and dollar got expensive then you should understand that the country’s prime minister was a thief.

Read more: Fawad Chaudhry congratulates overseas Pakistanis for passage of ‘historical bills’

Salient features of the bill

The Second amendment introduced by the PTI government to the Elections Act, 2017 are to sections 94(1) and Section 103 of the Elections Act 2017.

The bill recommended in section 94, for subsection (I), the following shall be substituted namely:- “(l) The Commission shall, with technical assistance of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), or any other Authority and Agency shall enable overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote during general elections in their country of residence.”

Whereas, the government recommended another amendment to section 103, in which it stated that the following shall be substituted, namely: “Electronic voting. The Commission shall procure electronic voting machines (EVMs) for casting of votes in general elections.”

Previously, the relevant section stated: “The ECP may conduct pilot projects for voting by overseas Pakistanis and utilisation of EVMs and biometric verification system in by-elections in addition to the existing manual procedures for voter verification, casting and counting of votes to assess the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of the EVMs and biometric verification system.”