ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry has stressed that deciding a mechanism for holding elections was the job of the country’s political leadership, adding that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was not entitled to raise questions on laws passed by parliament.
“The ECP has to implement all laws passed by Parliament while matters related to laws contradicting the Constitution will be dealt by the Supreme Court,” he said, while addressing a press conference after a federal cabinet meeting today (Tuesday).
The Information Minister reiterated that the government was determined to give voting rights to overseas Pakistanis and to take steps to hold next general elections through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
“EVM is the best way to ensure transparency in the election process and the machines Pakistan wants to adopt will have both paper and electronic trail of the ballot,” he said, advising the election commission to take practical steps in this regard.
He said the EVMs were being used in 20 countries and Estonia was the most digitised country as it had now switched to internet voting. Referring to the overseas Pakistanis, Fawad said they were a great asset for Pakistan as they contribute a lot to the national economy.
“PTI government was determined to introduce I-voting for the overseas Pakistanis so that they can participate in electing the national leadership of the country,” he added.
He asserted that it seems strange that both the PML-N and the PPP were afraid of giving voting rights to the overseas Pakistanis as these parties know that Prime Minister Imran Khan was the most popular leader amongst the expatriate Pakistanis.
Talking about the other decisions taken by the federal cabinet, Fawad Chaudhry said the cabinet also approved Public Property Encroachment Bill to recover state lands from illegal occupants across Pakistan. He announced that Aslam Khan has been appointed as new Chairman of Pakistan International Airlines.
Commenting on the vaccination process, the Minister said around 400,000 people were being vaccinated on daily basis while “we aim to vaccinate 70 million people till the end of this year”.
Regarding issues faced by vaccinated Pakistanis going abroad, he said discussions were underway between various countries and World Health Organization (WHO) to accord approval of different vaccines.
