Political parties' Senate seats should commensurate with number of seats in Provincial Assembly; SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that a political party should get the same number of seats in the Senate and if any party won the seats out of proportion, the system could be collapsed.

The court observed while a Presidential reference seeking an opinion on open balloting for the upcoming Senate elections.

A five-member larger bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Yahya Afridi heard the reference.

During the course of proceedings, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja appeared in the court and submitted revised reply of the commission before the bench.

The counsel for Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) submitted that Senate elections were held under Article 226 while Article 218 authorized the commission to hold transparent elections.

He said that the interpretation of Article 218 did not defuse Article 226 and did not limit the secrecy of Article 226.

The ECP lawyer said that keeping the votes secret mean that they would always remain secret, the cast votes could never be shown to anyone.

Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan remarked that the vote could not be kept secret forever. It was neither in the constitution nor in court decisions to keep the vote secret forever.

He asked what did proportional representation mean? The seats of the political party in the Senate should be commensurate with the seats in the Provincial Assembly, he added.

He said the word "free vote" was used in National Assembly voting, while the word "free voting" was not included in the law for Senate elections.

He asked how would the Election Commission ensure proportional representation?

He said that every political party should get seats in Senate elections according to its proportion and if a party got less seats, the Election Commission would be responsible. The selling of votes would violate the principle of proportional representation, he added.

He said if a party won seats out of proportion, the system would be destroyed.

The Chief Justice asked if any party won more Senate seats than the proportion, then what would the Election Commission do.

He asked how did the Election Commission determine that elections were held with proportional representation?

The ECP counsel said that no one could be prevented from exercising their right to vote. He said that Article 226 required to be amended in order to view the vote.

The Chief Justice said that the PML-N lawyer should be in the court tomorrow and the case would end at any time.

He said that the court would hear the Pakistan Bar Council only on the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the Constitution.

He said that the court would not heard the political arguments of Pakistan Bar Council.

The Chief Justice asked whether the Senate elections would be annulled due to lack of proportional representation. Voting could be secret, but the seats must be according to the proportion, he added.

He said that votes buyers would also have a system to check whether the seller would vote or not. He said that the Election Commission knew but was not telling to the court.

He asked how vote buyers make sure they would get votes. The fate of the country was in the hands of the Election Commission and it should understand its responsibilities, he added.

Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan said that the Election Commission had the power to stop vote selling but the commission says it would take action after the theft. He asked if the political parties got less seats than the proportion, then how would the legislation be?

He said that drugs and ill gotten money used to buy votes.

The Attorney General said that the Election Commission must wake up. All state institutions were bound by the word of the Election Commission, he added.

He said that bar codes or serial numbers could be written on ballot papers. Horse trading can be discouraged if there was a bar code on the counter file and ballot papers, he added.

After competition of Attorney General's arguments, Advocate General Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Shumail Butt started his arguments and said members of the assembly could not vote in Senate elections of their own choice. Proportional representation mean numerical representation of the Provincial Assembly in the Senate, he added.

Justice Yahya Afridi said that if there was proportional representation then what was the need for elections.

Later, hearing of the case was adjourned till Thursday (tomorrow).