After the declaration made by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry concerning the money of the Election Commission of Pakistan, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz has created a fresh Pandora’s box in response to that statement (ECP).
Following a federal cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the information minister said that, following the ratification of the new electoral legislation, it is critical for the ECP to use electronic voting machines (EVMs) in all scheduled by-elections throughout the country. He had previously said that if the ECP failed to do so, the government would be unable to distribute cash as required by law.
Mr. Faraz denied that the federal cabinet had taken any action to prevent the ECP from receiving cash. “The ministers had a casual discussion [about the issue] while Prime Minister Imran Khan was offering Zuhr prayers,” he said while appearing on Geo News’ ‘Capital Talk’ programme with a discussion panel that included Muhammad Zubair, a former Sindh governor and representative of Maryam Nawaz, and Ansar Abbasi, the News Editor for Investigation.
Faraz said that he considered Fawad’s views had received “unnecessary media attention” as a result of his comments.
Zubair, in response to Faraz’s comments, described it as “a very severe matter” and criticised the administration for its decision-making process, among other things. We all know that the cabinet has reached this decision, as Fawad Chaudhry informed the public earlier,” the PML-N leader stated in a statement. “Although Shibli now claims that it was determined while the prime minister was absent, this is not the case. Clearly, this is a really dangerous situation.”
Zubair went on to say that it is a big problem because the cabinet took such a vital decision in the absence of the prime minister, a decision that the prime minister himself does not own.
Faraz, on the other hand, claims that no such decision was taken at all.
An even more significant news event, according to Faraz, is the establishment by the Prime Minister of a cabinet-ratified commission to address all electoral impediments in the execution of election rules.
A ministerial committee including Babar Awan and Azam Swati as well as Aminul Haq and the attorney general of Pakistan was created by the Prime Minister with me serving as its chairperson to assist the election commission in organising free and fair elections using electronic voting machines.
According to the federal minister, after the passage of laws governing the use of electronic voting machines, the Prime Minister wants the government to collaborate with the ECP in order to resolve the issues they are experiencing in conducting elections using EVMs. Furthermore, he said that the commission has recommended that the Centre construct testing labs and storage warehouses, and they also urged that government funding be provided for training.
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