ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday stated that the electoral reforms is not only PTI’s agenda but they are a part of the national agenda.
The minister stated that electoral reforms were not “the agenda of Imran Khan or Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf [PTI],” but were a national agenda.
The minister while maintaining that all political parties should move forward towards electoral reforms stated that “It will be a great success for our political system if an electoral system is set up under which all the leaders are able to trust election results.”
Earlier this month, in a post-cabinet meeting, the minister confirmed that PM Imran Khan had sought the support of PTI’s allies for electoral reforms, which included the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and giving roughly nine million overseas Pakistanis the right to vote in the next general elections.
“We [the government] presented 49-point electoral reform idea before the allies,” the minister said, adding that further briefings would be given to the coalition partners in this regard. “We have sought their support for the electoral reforms agenda and they have graciously agreed,” he said.
However, earlier this week three of the allies had expressed reservations about recognising the EVM bill, during a meeting the government had convened to take on board its coalition partners over the electoral reforms.
As per the sources, the PML-Q, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and MQM-P had raised concerns with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Science and Technology Minister Shibli Faraz over the legislation on the use of EVMs, while mentioning that PML-Q’s Tariq Bashir Cheema said the party could not support the bill until it consulted its leadership.
Later on Saturday, the party also indicated that it will go against the ruling PTI over mistreatment of its workers in Punjab and for not being included in the decision-making process.
