ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has filed a plea with the Supreme Court of Pakistan to become part of its proceedings in a presidential reference seeking apex court’s advice on open ballot Senate elections, ARY NEWS reported.
The application was filed by PPP leader Nayyar Hussain Bukhari and the party would be lead in the apex court during the proceedings by Senator Raza Rabbani.
It is pertinent to mention here that a five-member bench of the Supreme Court is already hearing the proceedings of the presidential reference seeking advice from the top court on holding Senate elections through an open ballot.
During a hearing on February 02, Attorney General resumed his arguments in the presidential reference before a larger Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed.
Attorney General Khalid Javed advancing his case before the Supreme Court, said that the upcoming Senate elections have less than one month remaining and soon the trading will begin.
“Why the opposition not agreeing over the open ballot vote,” Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed questioned. “The opposition parties were agreed 10 years ago but now they are failing to fulfill their commitment,” the state counsel said.
“A Charter of Democracy was agreed between two former prime ministers. In 2010 the 18th Constitutional Amendment was passed but no clause added to the promised legislation for preventing horse-trading in the senate election,” the attorney general further said.
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“It is upto the election commission to stop the trading of votes,”Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan remarked. “The election commission is supporting secret ballot vote. It has hired a lawyer for its representation,” AG further said.
“We want open ballot only for the sake of transparency,” he said.
“PPP and the PML-N haven’t opposed the presidential reference,” the CJP said. “The JUI and Jamat Islami have opposed the reference,” the attorney general said.
