The government, after approval of the President, had moved the reference before the top court to seek its opinion that whether the senate elections could be held before the date as scheduled by the Constitution.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Dec 29th , 2020) The Supreme Court of Pakistan will take up on January 4, 2021 the Federal government’s reference seeking opinion about holding Senate elections earlier than the scheduled date under the Constitution.
A five-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan will hear the reference at the principal seat in Islamabad.
On Dec 23, the federal government with approval of President Arif Alvi moved the reference before the court seeking opinion on holding Senate elections a month earlier from the scheduled date as guaranteed by the Constitution.
The Senate elections are held after expiry of the Senators’ tenure.
Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Javed Khan filed the reference before the top court after getting approval from President Dr Arif Alvi under Article 186 of the Constitution.
The government sought opinion of the apex court over condition of secret ballot guaranteed by Article 226 of the Constitution.
The Article is applicable to the elections held 'under' the Constitution such as the election to the office of president, speakers and deputy speaks of the Parliament and provincial assemblies and “not to other elections such as the election for the members of Senate” held under the Elections Act 2017 enacted to pursuant to Article 222 read with Entry 41 (1) of the Fourth schedule to the Constitution "which may be held by way of secret or open ballot" as provided for in the Act.
The government said that nature of the elections and the way it is conducted has not been clearly mentioned in the Constitution. The government said election for the Senate is conducted in accordance with the Election Act of 2017 and asked if it was possible to introduce the idea of open-balloting in the upper house of the Parliament.
The government said that the process of “show of hands” instead of secret balloting will bring transparency to the Senate elections, pointing out that secret balloting leads to widespread corruption among the members.
Last month, the federal government announced to hold Senate election in February instead of March 2021. However, it was a constitutional matter because the elections could not be held not earlier than 30 days from the date the current senators would retire.
The opposition had clearly opposed the government for this decision, saying that the government could not do as it was a constitutional matter.
