ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi suggested to amend the Constitution to apply Article 6, that deals with treason, on elements found rigging the elections.
His comment came a day after the Parliament passed a law allowing electronic vote-counting despite furious protests from the opposition which said it had been pushed through by the government to rig the next election.
Opposition MPs tore up copies of the law, chanted slogans and called Khan a vote thief before walking out.
“I believe that this is the blackest day of our parliamentary history. We condemn it,” PML-N president and the leader of the opposition in National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, said.
Talking to the media in Karachi Thursday, Abbasi said: “Elections are stolen here and the only way to ensure free and fair elections in Pakistan is to bring a constitutional amendment.”
He accused the government of attempting to bring the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) under its control through the passage of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) legislation.
He claimed the electronic voting machines have failed worldwide, while in Pakistan, the government was adamant to waste public money on such futile experiments.
“The electoral process in Pakistan is not controversial, [but ]the mechanism to hold polls is. But, we are now even making the election process tainted,” he added.
Abbasi feared that the machines would even erase the evidence [of attempted rigging], saying “stealing elections will remain a crime regardless of any tactic used by the government.”
He recalled the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser had sent opposition parties a letter seeking consensus of all political parties for passage of bills in the parliament.
“We agreed to it and said the so-called electoral reform bills should also be sent to Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms in view of the practice of the past. But the speaker did not respond to us on this,” he moaned.
Pakistan has a history of parties alleging vote-rigging after every election. Prime Minister Imran Khan believes that electronic vote-counting will ensure transparency.
The government has for months been trying to pass the law that will allow overseas Pakistanis to cast their ballot online.
Khan enjoys widespread support among some nine million Pakistan nationals living abroad. The next national election is scheduled for 2023.
The opposition claim Khan is unlikely to secure a second term.
