Senate elections: Zardari proposes APC on horse-trading

PPP co-chairman hails govt proposal to amend Constitution

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has proposed the government convene an all parties’ conference (APC) to discuss the issue of possible horse-trading in the upcoming Senate elections.

While welcoming the government proposal to amend the Constitution to conduct the Senate elections through show of hands instead of secret balloting, Zardari insisted that the issue should be addressed by all political parties together, not by the government alone.

PPP’s media office in a statement quoted the party’s co-chairman as saying that all political parties should be invited to discuss electoral fraud and rigging of all types including those recently agitated by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The former president feels it is good that the government seems to have realised that horse-trading in the Senate elections is a serious issue that has done great disservice to the parliament and political processes and needs to be tackled.

“One hopes the apparent realisation on the part of the government to focus on the issue will not be a political gimmickry but a first step towards comprehensive electoral reforms,” he said.



Zardari added that if the government was serious it should invite all parties to decide on how efficiently to prevent electoral rigging not only in the Senate but also in the National Assembly, provincial assemblies and now also in the local bodies polls.

“We recently witnessed the near breakdown of the civilian and political structures due to the demonstrations and protests against fraud and rigging in the 2013 general elections,” he added.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2015.