The provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday passed a unanimous resolution demanding that instead of district administration the upcoming local bodies' polls should be held under supervision of judiciary in the province. The matter was earlier taken up by Shah Hussain of JUI-F through a point of order. However, after a detailed debate by MPAs from both opposition and treasury benches, the house evolved consensus on the passage of a unanimous resolution from the house.
Taking the floor, Shah Hussain said that the government is holding the local bodies' polls scheduled on May 30, 2015 under the supervision of district administration, which has created apprehensions that it will not be transparent.
He said that at a time handling of seven ballot papers will also create difficulties. Therefore, he proposed the holding of the elections in two phases and under the supervision of judiciary.
Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, the parliamentary leader of QWP said that the holding of elections on May 30 and the announcement of results after the passage of one week is creating doubts.
Syed Jaffar Shah of ANP called for measures to block pre-poll rigging and demanded of fair and transparent polls within minimum expenditure on one day.
Manawar Khan Advocate of JUI-F said that when the counting will be conducted on the same day then the results should also be announced on the same day.
Raja Faisal Zaman of the PML-N said that the elections should be held in one-go without any phase. He said that elections should be held under the supervision of judiciary without any delay in the announcement of their results.
Provincial Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE), Shah Farman assured that all apprehensions regarding transparency will be redressed. He said that the elections are required 90 million ballot papers. He said that the Election Commission should be told that the printing of ballot papers through private printing presses and at a time handling of seven ballot papers could make question mark on the transparency of the polls.
He said that holding elections for village and neighbourhoods on one day and then holding polls for tehsil and district councils on the second day will be better.
Senior Minister for Local Government and Rural Development (LG&RD), Inayatullah said that concern regarding transparency of the local bodies' polls prevails both inside and outside the house.
He said that, he himself,is in favour that instead of district administration the local bodies' polls should be held under the supervision of judiciary. He said that he is fully supporting this stance of the opposition, but the responsibility, he said rest with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
He, on behalf of the provincial government, appealed the Election Commission for holding the elections under the supervision of judiciary. He proposed the passage of a unanimous resolution by the house in this regard.
He also called for taking into consideration the opinion of the house regarding the issue of the holding of polls on two different days. He said that the Election Commission itself should decide to hold it in one day or in two days. However, he said in his personal opinion, he has no objection either to hold it one day or in two phases.
Later, the Speaker Asad Qaiser suspended the rules to allow the mover to move the resolution, which the house adopted unanimously.
Comments
Comments are closed.