NAB, Election Act amendment bills sail through Senate amid noisy protests

ISLAMABAD, May 27: The Senate on Friday passed the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which seeks to scrap electronic voting in elections and restrain overseas Pakistanis from participating in elections but that was without some noisy protests from the Opposition legislators.
During the session chaired by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Murtaza Javed Abbasi moved both the bills, which were passed by the National Assembly on Thursday.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the Pakistan Tehreeek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had made several amendments to the Election Act, 2017, including those that allowed the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and granted overseas Pakistanis the right to vote in general elections.
Addressing the Senators, Tarar insisted that the voting right of the overseas Pakistanis has not been withdrawn. “This right is not abolished, it is still there,” he added.
He said Election Commission has been asked to ensure the right to vote keeping in view the secrecy. The ECP should ensure that the voting right of the overseas Pakistanis, he added.
Tarar said that after the passage of the bill, the National Accountability Bureau must complete all inquiries within a period of six months. He said that the PTI government had extended the tenure of incumbent NAB chairman by promulgating an ordinance and that various honest civil servants were put behind bars without any cogent evidence.
The members of the Opposition staged noisy protests during the passage of the bills. They surrounded the dais of the Senate chairman and torn apart the copies of the agenda. They raised slogans against the government, terming it an imported one which was not acceptable.
The Senate passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022, making certain amendments in some sections of the previous Elections Act, 2017. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Javed Murtaza Abbasi presented the bill before the house to amend the Elections Act, 2017, which was unanimously passed by the Senate.
The house was informed that Sections 94 and 103 of Elections Act 2017 were amended vide Act No.LV of 2021 for using I-voting and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) from the next General Elections. – NNI