So you see, it all makes perfect sense. Heroes do not negotiate with villains.

They don’t bargain morality and they do not barter goodness. No sir, they do
not ever do this because, you know what? They would rather die — on the big
screen, that is — before they indulge the whims and fancies of their most vile,
most despicable and definitely most unworthy enemies. That is not how
honourable men and women behave. And PTI is, after all, a party of
honourable men and women.

Which is why the PTI pretends EVMs are the panacea this country needs. The
PTI also pretends Daska never happened. It pretends dozens of election
officials were not kidnapped by officials of PTI’s own government, and that the
atrocity of electoral manipulation led to the whole contest being cancelled. The
PTI also pretends the Election Commission did not issue a report that proves
that rigging took place in Daska and that the Punjab administration was
culpable. No one will raise Daska, no one will talk Daska, and no one will
address Daska. So let’s pretend EVMs will ensure Daska does not happen
again.

ON Nov 17, representative democracy received a blow perhaps even

more profound than has been witnessed over the last three years.
The pandemonium that prevailed during the joint session of
parliament that day and the rhetoric following it has focused
largely on two controversial amendments to the Election Act 2017.
These pertain to the use of electronic voting machines and I-voting
for overseas Pakistanis, contained in the Elections (Second
Amendment) Bill, 2021, which the PTI government was desperate
to pass despite the opposition’s vociferous objections and the ECP’s
reservations.

The vast majority of the bills — 29, to be exact — that were enacted into law by
the joint session had been passed by the National Assembly, and were in the
Senate for deliberation. Article 70 of the Constitution provides for bills, under
certain circumstances, to be considered in a joint sitting; it certainly does not
envisage them being forced through in the roughshod way witnessed this
week, without allowing for any meaningful debate or voting on the clauses
contained therein that is required by the relevant rules of procedure.
No less than six bills pertained to Islamabad, including the Food Safety and
Rent Restriction Amendment bills. Among the other bills were also the
Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and the Anti-Rape (Investigation and
Trial) Bill, 2021, stipulating the use of modern technology and setting up of
special courts to investigate and try rape cases. These provisions to address
the crime of rape had first been introduced through an ordinance in 2020, and
were later tabled as proposed statutory legislation and passed by the Lower
House.

Herein may lie the answer as to why the PTI government thought it fit to bring
this massive legislative agenda to a single joint session of parliament. Time
and again it has demonstrated an authoritarian streak that has little patience
for parliamentary conventions and rules or the importance of having diverse
points of view feed into lawmaking. That has translated into a plethora of
legislation by executive decree during the last three years. Certainly, bypassing
parliament is hardly the sole preserve of this government; ordinances are a
convenient tool to avoid justifying proposed legislation to the opposition
benches. But this week, the PTI government’s show of political expediency and
its disdain for the grave responsibility of lawmaking offers yet more cause for
alarm.

Inclusive legislation is important in general but when it comes to electoral

laws which set the rules of the game for the next elections, the lack of
consensus becomes totally unacceptable. The passage of electoral laws in the
past have generally been the result of bipartisan consensus just like Elections
Act, 2017 whose passage took about three years and over 100 committee
meetings. The committee meetings were suspended when PTI legislators
resigned; they resumed only after they returned following the calling off of the
PTI dharna.

It is ironic that while the joint sitting was passing the law to introduce
electronic voting in the country, the electronic automatic vote recorder and its
display boards already installed in the National Assembly chamber incurring
quite a handsome amount of taxpayers’ money remained unused as they have
for the last many years. It is about time the electronic voting system within
parliament was revived.

The flaws in the joint sitting proceedings reflect a poor quality of democracy
which seems to be getting worse with each such development.

The titles of the bills are as follows:

1. The Elections (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021

2. The International Court of Justice (Review and Re-consideration) Bill,

2021)

3. The Islamabad Capital Territory Charities Registration, Regulation and

Facilitation Bill, 2021

4. The SBP Banking Services Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021

5. The National College of Arts Institute Bill, 2021

6. The Muslim Family Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Amendment in

Section 4)

7. The Muslim Family Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Amendment in

Section 7)

8. The Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Bill, 2021

9. The Hyderabad Institute for Technical and Management Sciences Bill,

2021

10.The Islamabad Rent Restriction (Amendment) Bill, 2021

11. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2021

12.The Corporate Restructuring Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2021

13.The Financial Institutions (Secured Transactions) (Amendment) Bill,

2021
14.The Federal Public Service Commission (Validation of Rules) Bill, 2021

15. The University of Islamabad Bill, 2021

16.The Loans for Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Purposes

(Amendment) Bill, 2021

17. The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2021

18.The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission

(Amendment) Bill, 2021

19.The Pakistan Academy of Letters (Amendment) Bill, 2021

20. The Port Qasim Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021

21.The Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021

22. The Gwadar Port Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021

23. The Maritime Security Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2021

24. The Emigration (Amendment) Bill, 2021

25. The Privatization Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021

26. COVID-19 (Prevention of Hoarding) Bill, 2021

27.The Al-Karam International Institute Bill, 2021

28. The Islamabad Capital Territory Prohibition of Corporal

Punishment Bill, 2021

29. The Islamabad Capital Territory Food Safety Bill, 2021

30. The Unani, Ayurvedic and Homoeopathic Practitioners

(Amendment) Bill, 2021

31.The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2021

32. The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2021

33. The Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of
Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2021.