On Monday, a five member bench of the Supreme Court revealed that Senate polls can not be held through an open ballot. Headed by Gulzar Ahmed, Chief Justice of Pakistan, the bench announced the statement in the open court with a large majority.
“It is the responsibility of the Election Commission to end corrupt practices from the electoral process and it can utilise the technology in this regard,” said the apex court, adding that the Election Commission is authorized to make decisions in order to warrant transparency.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Minister for Information Shibli Faraz pressed the ECP to ensure transparency and to alleviate corruption in the Senate elections.
“Today’s decision is a very historic decision which apparently seems [to state] that Senate elections will be held according to Article 226. But at the same time, the honourable judges of the Supreme Court acknowledged that technology should be used to make elections transparent,” he said.
Earlier, Chief Justice Gulzar stated that the decision for Senate polls to be open or secret was the Parliament’s decision.
“We will only respond to the questions that have been asked in regards to the reference; the court only has to determine whether Article 226 of the Constitution applies to the Senate elections,” he said on the occasion.
