Muhammad Asad
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain come up to teach the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) about its mandate and the supremacy of the Parliament, house of nation’s representatives during a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday.
Electoral reforms halted due to problems being faced regarding overseas Pakistanis right to vote, Fawad said while briefing the media men regarding the decisions taken by the federal cabinet during today’s meeting.
Fawad accused the PPP and PML-N for opposing the government reforms for granting the right to vote to overseas Pakistanis due to fear because they know that overseas Pakistanis do not like Zardari, Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif and only admirer of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
According to Fawad, Overseas Pakistanis deserve the right to vote because they sent Rs. 1 trillion remittances annually and playing a significant role in the development and growth of the country.
While informing the media regarding cabinet’s decision about import of wheat, he said that federal cabinet approved the import of 1 million matric ton wheat despite record production of wheat in the country during current year.
He said the government has decided to establish a sub-committee of the cabinet on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to oversee the issues relating to these private entities.
He informed that Cabinet approved the appointment of Asim Riaz as CEO of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for three months and Mr. Aslam Khan as new Chairman PIA.
He said that government is going to introduce new law regarding the ownership/ possession of government’s properties and under this law government departments can reclaim their properties being confiscated or used by the private entities and public.
He further informed the media that Pakistan Railway has abandoned the waqf properties and the government departments having land issues with Railway can reclaim under this law.
While responding to a media query regarding objections of ECP on electoral reforms, Fawad said that ECP can not raise questions over Parliament’s decisions. He added ECP duty is to implement the law passed by the parliament.
Chaudhry grilled the ECP and said, if some one wants to do politics, he must leave the ECP and form a political party, Parliament is supreme and ECP must extend due respect to the right of the legislature.
Chaudhry Fawad said that ECP must work out the methodology for E-voting and leave the process of legislation for the parliament and political leadership of the Country.
According to him, government is ready to discuss electoral reforms with the political leadership sitting in the parliament except three political leaders not part of the parliament including Nawaz Sharif, Maryum Nawaz and JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazl-Ur-Rehman.
