Khursheed Shah opposes amendment for Senate election

Khursheed Shah has said that the Senate elections could not be held with ‘show of hands’.

He called the proposal of amendment in the constitution to prevent horse trading as regretful adding that the practice can be curbed by strengthening the political parties.

He suggested that the Senate elections should also be held directly with popular vote to stop the entry of black sheep with monetary muscle in the august house.

The government had recently proposed amending the voting procedure in Senate elections to discourage the horse trading.

In a federal cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the government had suggested to change the secret ballot vote in Senate polls to ‘show of hand’ to discourage corrupt practices in election of the upper house of the parliament.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had set up two committees of the PML-N ministers comprised of Ahsan Iqbal, Saad Rafique, Anoshe Rehman, Khawaja Zaheer and Barrister Zafarullah, to contact with other political parties to amend the procedure of voting in Senate elections.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan in a recent media talk had welcomed the proposal floated by the government.

The committees members today met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and reported him about their contacts with other political parties.

The Prime Minister has also decided to hold contacts with the leaders of the political parties to pass an amendment in the constitution.