KARACHI [PAKISTAN], Nov 18, (AA): Pakistan\u2019s parliament on Wednesday approved amendments to the country\u2019s election laws, including electronic voting and voting right to the Pakistanis living abroad in the next general polls slated to be held in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The legislation, vehemently opposed by a strong opposition, was passed in the joint session of the parliament \u2013 National Assembly and Senate \u2013 summoned by the president in the capital Islamabad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier, the amendments had been approved by the treasury-dominated lower house \u2013 the National Assembly \u2013 but rejected by Senate, the upper house, where opposition enjoys a majority, forcing the government to call a joint session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the country\u2019s Constitution, if the two houses do not agree on legislation or a bill, then a joint session of the parliament can be summoned by the president to approve or reject that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The parliament also passed a bill providing the right to \u201creview and reconsideration\u201d to an alleged Indian spy, Kulbhushan Jadhav, to bring into effect the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In July 2019, the ICJ in its judgment had asked Pakistan to make effective legislation to provide the right to review, and consular access to the alleged Indian spy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jadhav \u2013 who Pakistan says was a serving officer in the Indian Navy \u2013 was arrested in 2016 in the town of Mashkel in the Balochistan province, a few miles from the border with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Pakistan military court sentenced him to death in April 2017 on espionage and terrorism charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ICJ, however, ruled that Jadhav be treated under the Vienna Convention, asking Pakistan to provide him consular access and continue to stay his execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opposition\u2019s protest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The opposition alliance, including the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) of the three-time Premier Nawaz Sharif, and the Pakistan People\u2019s Party (PPP) of the slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, rejected the amendments, accusing the government of planning to \u201csteal\u201d the next elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dozens of opposition lawmakers gathered in front of the Speaker\u2019s rostrum and near the treasury benches, and chanted slogans against Prime Minister Imran Khan who was present during the parliament\u2019s proceedings. They later tore the copies of the bills and walked out of the session in protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Talking to newsmen outside the parliament, opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif announced that the opposition would challenge the legislation in the Supreme Court as, according to him, the government has violated the Constitution and the parliamentary norms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Calling the electronic voting machines to be used for the next elections \u201cevil and vicious machines\u201d, Shehbaz, a three-time chief minister of the country\u2019s largest Punjab province, accused the government of \u201cbulldozing\u201d the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the government has not even consulted the opposition parties over the key legislation, which shows its nefarious designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Addressing the parliament, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi rejected accusations by the opposition, calling it a “historic day”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The legislation, he contended, will make the electoral process “clean and transparent”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has long been demanding the voting right for millions of overseas Pakistanis.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KARACHI [PAKISTAN], Nov 18, (AA): Pakistan\u2019s parliament on Wednesday approved amendments to the country\u2019s election laws, including electronic voting and voting right to the Pakistanis living abroad in the next general polls slated to be held in 2023. The legislation, vehemently opposed by a strong opposition, was passed in the joint session of the parliament […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,82],"tags":[1111,1109,1110,65],"class_list":["post-2434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-paksitan","tag-election-commission","tag-electoral-laws","tag-evm","tag-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}