Pakistani Chief Justice: Secret Balloting, Not Islamic
Wednesday, April 6th, 2016 7:05:11 by modousarr
Pakistan’s top judge who argued that the concept of secret balloting during elections is unheard of in Islam.
“This concept has been borrowed from the West. [In case of secret balloting] we assure every contestant that we will vote for them,” Chief Justice Anwar ZaheerJamali.
Justice Jamali heard a Sindh government appeal against the Sindh High Court’s February 10 judgment in favor of secret balloting in local government (LG) elections. The Sindh High Court declared void an amendment passed by the Sindh government in the provincial Local Government law, which replaced secret balloting with a show of hands when it came to electing mayors, deputy mayors and other LG representatives.
Nevertheless, Justice Jamali was of the view that the purpose of amending a law should be for the betterment of the populace and not to secure government interests.
“Unfortunately, all governments legislate for their own benefits,” he said. “Sometimes it suits governments to hold elections through secret ballots and sometime through show of hands – they make laws according to their needs.”
Having such a preferential approach would, he believes, create an avenue for mistrust in society and a reason for disorder, for which the burden rests on the court to dissipate.
“The question is why the Sindh government made many amendments in the Local Government Act 2013,” he asked.
Previously, the Sindh additional advocate general (AAG) incorporated Farooq H Naek arguments and appeared on behalf of the Sindh government to complete his arguments.
Waqar Rana, the Additional Attorney General, on behalf of the federation, contended the SHC’s judgement.
Article 226 of the Constitution, which states that “All elections under the Constitution, other than those of prime minister and the chief minister, shall be by secret ballot”, does not apply to the LG system.
He added that Article 140A had been inserted into the Constitution through the 18th Amendment, claiming that under the article, LG elections were a must unless it was left to the provincial governments to hold LG polls… “The Constitution does not envisage LG elections through secret ballot,” he said.
The AAG further referred to various articles of the Constitution which granted elections for several offices, not to mention that of the president, prime minister, chief minister, speaker National Assembly and Senate chairman.
Khyber-Pukhtunkhawa’s AG Latif Yousafzai imputed that LG elections completed in the province with the election of mayors and deputy mayors of councils ought to be through ‘open division of the house’.
“If the apex court declares that Article 226 is applicable to the LG system, then it should not hit the K-P local governments as it is a past and closed transaction,” he said.
Balochistan’s AAG represented to the court that LG polls were held through secret ballot by reason of the Balochistan High Court.
Farough Naseem, the lawyer for the MQM, is expected to start his arguments today (Wednesday).
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