PTI Rolls Up Sleeves to Win Senate Election
Senate election will be held on 52 seats as half of the total 104 Senators would retire on March 11
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is showing cards to win the Senate election through open ballot and to win it by all means.
It is gearing up on legal, administrative, and political fronts to make Senate polls happen through open votes.
The Senate election will be held on 52 seats as half of the total 104 Senators would retire on March 11.
Legal front
The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Thursday approved the bill with six votes in favor while three against it.
The opposition members accused the committee chairman of partiality.
All three votes against the bill were cast by lawmakers from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) did not attend the meeting.
Administrative
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has released a grant of Rs 500 million to each MPA and MNA of his party.
The move has been taken right before the Senate election.
Political
PTI’s MNA Raja Riaz has suggested bringing back Jehangir Khan Tareen to win the Senate election.
However, the proposal has stirred a debate within the party.
Time constraints
The Senate members are retiring in March and the government has the uphill task of getting the bill passed in the Senate.
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PTI government is eyeing to gain the majority in the Senate so that it will face no hurdle in legislation in the upper house.
What are options for government?
Even without a majority in the upper house, the government has passed several bills in the Senate including amendments to the Army Act 1952.
However, in case of not being able to outnumber the opposition in the upper house, the government will have the option to summon a joint session of the parliament and pass bills as it had at the time of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) bill.
Presidential reference
A presidential reference has been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) to hold the Senate election through the show of hands.
However, only the Sindh government has opposed the case while the governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan, and Punjab supported it.
In the reply submitted to the Supreme Court (SC), the Sindh government said that the presidential reference was filed for political expediency.
It added that no legal question was raised in the reference sent by the President and pleaded the court to refuse to give its opinion on the matter as the method of holding Senate election has been clarified in the Election Act 2017.
Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has also opposed the move in the apex court. It has taken the support of Article 226 of the Constitution which provides that all elections under the Constitution other than those of prime minister and chief ministers ‘shall’ be held by secret ballot.
PTI’s action against horse-trading
PTI had sacked its 20 lawmakers from the party after they were found guilty of selling votes in the Senate election in 2018.
Now, as the date of the Senate election comes closer, some more cunning moves could be expected from the ruling PTI as it has wedged a war to win the Senate election.
