Elections waqt per ho sakengy ya nahi?

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Elections waqt per ho sakengy ya nahi?  #elections2023 #census2023 #ecp #pmln #mariamemon #arynews

Transcript

00:00 Ahmed Bilal Mahmood, Sarwar Raphel Dat are with us. Thank you very much for joining us.

00:04 Were you surprised to see that so soon after the election,

00:08 when there was a discussion about the caretaker set-up,

00:11 the Prime Minister announced that there will be elections on a new male number.

00:16 Now, you and I both understand that the federal parties have never taken such decisions under the pressure of MQM.

00:24 So, where did this come from all of a sudden?

00:26 And when this was announced today, how do you see the new candidates emerging?

00:32 Thank you very much.

00:35 I was also surprised because there was a consistent position from three to four loyal ministers

00:41 that they will have elections on the census of 2017.

00:46 Because one thing was clear that the biggest decision to be made in it is

00:51 that which province will get how many members of the National Assembly.

00:55 And the change in it could not be because we did not have the number of amendments to the constitution.

01:04 So I thought that they would probably go to 2017.

01:07 But then when the Prime Minister announced it all of a sudden,

01:11 it is absolutely correct that I was also surprised and then I saw it a little more closely.

01:16 Then I realized what the implications of this would be.

01:20 The implications are very clear that the date of elections will increase by at least three to four months.

01:27 And the date of February that was being told is a very realistic date after these new circumstances.

01:33 Sir, when these new candidates will be elected, people will have to appeal.

01:38 Those who feel that their constituency has been messed up or that their demands are not being translated,

01:44 then they will also go to the appeal. Then it will take some time, it will also have some duration,

01:51 then there will be more delay.

01:53 No, the whole period of four months that the Election Commission has given,

01:59 one month is for appeals and their resolution.

02:04 So it is included in it.

02:06 There is a total time in four months in which all this adjudication will also take place.

02:11 Objections will also be included in it. Demarcation will also be done in it.

02:15 So everything should be done in four months, I think.

02:18 Sir, Mr. Ahmed, now the issue is that when you mentioned earlier that a constitutional amendment is needed,

02:24 because the House is not in order at the moment, the quorum is not complete,

02:28 then this two-thirds constitutional amendment cannot be done.

02:31 The government's explanation that came today, I was listening to it,

02:34 they were saying that the distribution of seats will not be affected in the morning.

02:38 The cities will be managed by the provincial governments.

02:42 Is this a fair strategy?

02:45 Yes, it is true that the provincial allocation of seats,

02:52 of the seats of the National Assembly, there will be no change in it.

02:55 It will be in accordance with 2017.

02:58 It will be in accordance because we do not have the number of seats for the National Assembly.

03:03 But intra-provincial, within the province, the seats allocated to different districts,

03:11 if the population of a district has increased, then according to that, the seats will increase.

03:17 If the population of a district has decreased, then according to that, it will decrease.

03:21 But the total seats allocated to that province will not change.

03:25 So since there is no need for constitutional amendment to change the seats of the districts,

03:31 this will happen and then the seats of the provinces will be changed.

03:35 And then obviously when the seats of the provinces will change,

03:38 then according to that, the seats of the districts will change again.

03:41 So once again there will be demarcation before the next election.

03:44 Sir, does this make sense to you?

03:46 We will come so close to the election, first we will do this exercise now,

03:49 after that when we will have two-thirds of the house,

03:53 we will bring it through our majority,

03:57 and then once again we will demarcate it.

04:01 Isn't this a joke?

04:03 I mean, who wants to fight the election at the constituency level?

04:06 My personal assessment is that it was a political decision.

04:10 It was not a constitutional decision.

04:13 But many people have the opinion that since the census was done,

04:17 so it would have been unconstitutional not to notify the census.

04:21 That is why they did this.

04:23 But my opinion is that if they wanted to do it, they could have done it earlier.

04:28 To come so close to announce this is a political decision.

04:32 And the political benefit of this could have been that the elections would have been done 4 months ahead.

04:37 Sir, this is Article 51 in my hand and it says that

04:40 seats in National Assembly shall be allocated to each province and federal capital

04:45 on the basis of population in accordance with the last proceeding census officially published.

04:50 Article 51 says that the seats in the provinces will be reviewed on the basis of this new census.

04:57 It should be done.

04:59 But since Article 51.3 is also there,

05:03 and the table in which the allocation is already there,

05:07 now it will have to be changed to follow the same article 51.5

05:13 and the allocation in the provinces will also change accordingly.

05:16 So, since this is a strange situation in which the mindset can not be changed,

05:22 the allocation in the provinces will not change.

05:25 But I still say that this is not a final decision.

05:28 A question can be raised on this in the Supreme Court.

05:32 Ultimately, its interpretation will be done by the Supreme Court.

05:35 This is my opinion and it can also be the opinion of some other people.

05:38 But I think this matter will go to court

05:41 and it may take a few days to adjudicate it there as well.

05:45 Sir, the caretaker CM of two provinces was present in this decision.

05:49 This question was raised before and there were legal objections to it.

05:53 But we saw that the process was done.

05:56 The caretaker CM voted and a consensus decision was made on the basis of it.

06:00 What is the legal standing of this decision?

06:03 Can anyone challenge this decision later on at some other occasion?

06:06 Absolutely.

06:08 I personally believe that since the section 2 of the Elections Act 2017

06:14 is Section 230,

06:16 its Zali Shikh 2A clearly states that

06:22 the caretaker government shall not take major policy decisions.

06:28 So I think the decision on the census,

06:31 whether the census should be done on the last or the current election,

06:34 is a major policy decision.

06:37 And the caretaker CM could not take this major policy decision.

06:42 I also thought that since the Council of Common Interest has two CMs,

06:49 the elected CMs have no place.

06:52 The caretaker CM could have taken small decisions,

06:56 but not such a big decision.

06:59 So I think the decision on the census is not right in the Council of Common Interest.

07:04 I agree with the position taken by Mr. Raza Rabani.

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