PTI Planning To Snatch Election Commission’s Constitutional Powers, Compromise Security Of Election Ops, Sensitive Data – Marriyum
ISLAMABAD: PMLN Secretary Information Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that the PTI Ministers on the directions of Imran Khan were attempting to trample upon Pakistan’s constitution to rob the next election through the Election Fraud Machines and illegally transfer tge powers of Election Commission to Corruption and rigging headquarters in the Prime Minister House.
Is an act of terrorism against the constitution of Pakistan to snatch Election Commission’s constitutional powers and shift them to the Prime Minister House to rig the elections, she said.
At a press conference in Islamabad flanked by Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Marriyum said that the constitution of Pakistan under Article 218 gives the Election Commission total autonomy to hold election in the country how it sees fit. She said the PTI hooligans, by threatening to burn down Election Commission and sending it to hell have committed an act of terror and must be held accountable. These PTI Ministers must he made an example by punishing them so that nobody ever again dares to attack members of the Election Commission or threaten its representatives, she stressed.
This attack by the PTI on the election commission was not just extremely condemnable but highly shameful as well, she said. This onslaught by PTI in the Senate Committee and then in press conference just after 3 meetings over the EVM issue shows PTI’s desperation to steal the next elections. She reminded how PMLN held over 100 consultative sessions and built a broad based consensus before implementing election reforms in the form of the Election Act 2017. And according to the article 10 of this act, the Cheof Election Commissioner and its members were given powers equivalent to the Judges of High Court of Pakistan, she pointed out. The article 10 also gives them the power to punish such attacks by PTI under the same law of contempt, she said.
The former Information Minister slammed the PTI government and Imran Khan for their meaningless statement saying that tge Parliament should be supreme over the Election Commission and said that they should know that this power was given to the Election Commission by the Parliament itself. She said such statement were rich coming from PTI that called for an assault on the Parliament, who cussed at the Parliament and hung dirty laundry on it.
Marriyum said Imran Khan’s true objectives were not just bringing election fraud tools like EVMs or giving expats right to vote, but the true agenda here was to snatch Election Commission powers and give them to the Prime Minister House so that he can manipulate and rig election as and when he sees fit. But they should know that Pakistan was not their private property where they could bulldoze every law through joint sessions and murder tge constitution, she warned.
The PMLN Secretary Information said the Election Commission during the meeting of Senate Committee meeting clearly said that these EVMs cannot be used for technical, financial and administrative reasons. They pointed out the capacity issues and lack of consensus. They also said such processes come through gradual evolving of the system and also said that under EVMs the data, software and firmware were not secure. Out of the 167 democratic countries 8 tried it as pilot project and 9 rejected it. There would also be no way to track any ringing in case data or hardware were switched after polling.
Marriyum also pointed out that PTI also intends to change criteria of delimitation of constituencies based on registered voters instead of population which was also a blatant violation of the constitution. And most importantly under PTI’s proposed reforms political parties would not be liable to declare their funding, which was clearly that they wanted to get themselves off the hook from the 23 illegal foriegn funding accounts case. But the people of Pakistan and tge honorable Parliamentarians of Pakistan would not let such black laws pass or be implemented, she warned. They would not allow the dismemberment of constitutional institutions like the Election Commission nor will they allow gagging of media through Pakistan Media Development Authority. This entire election reform fiasco was a conspiracy against Pakistan, its Parliament, its constitution and its people, she said.
The PMLN spokesperson questioned that who would Commission and programe and prepare there voting machines considering that the Election Commission had rejected the idea totally. Would it be Fawad Chaudhry and Shibli Faraz that would do all this, or would it be outsourced? And how exactly would such sensitive data and operations be outsourced to?, she objected.
Marriyum said if this EVM was such an ideal and flawless system then why did tge PTI fail to answer a single of the 37 objections raised by tge election commission and instead accused them of being corrupt and political whereas the truth is that PTI has destroyed and compromised Pakistan’s political fabric and its constitution but the opposition won’t let it carry on like this.
