Govt to introduce 10 important electoral reforms

ISLAMABAD – Minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Wednesday said the government was going to introduce 10 important electoral reforms in the country. Talking to a private news channel, he said the government should approach to every relevant party for electoral reforms and it should take step first for the purpose.

The minister said, Prime Minister Imran Khan was well aware person and he had multiple dimensions in politics, adding the opposition wanted to compete with that person who had become heavy weight politician. Replying to a question, he said the people were disappointed from the opposition’s way of politics and it was busy in holding political gatherings from last six months but output is nothing except wastage of time and energy as well.

Sheikh Rashid said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was disintegrated as co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari was playing his cards carefully, adding PPP and PML-N were not united earlier and would never in future. To another query, he said Chief Minister of Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar had full confidence of Prime Minister Imran Khan and PM was stood with him.

He said holding sit-in and long march was not an easy task both were difficult things and Maulana Fazlur Rehman was doing confronting politics in the first time in his political carrier.

Meanwhile, hailing the decision of opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to postpone its anti-government March 26 long march, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Wednesday said that the PTI government was ready to issue emergency travelling documents to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif if he wanted to return to the country. 

“As his (PML-N leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) passport has not been renewed (by the government) but if he wants to return to Pakistan, the government can issue him travel documents within 24 hours under the law,” the minister said while addressing a press conference here. 

He was talking to media in the wake of recent rifts in PDM, a coalition of 10 opposition parties, as PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari reportedly has set the condition that his party would only resign from the assemblies if former PM Sharif would return to the country to launch a joint struggle. Sharif is living in self-exile in London for more than a year claiming that he was getting himself treated. Other nine parties in PDM have agreed to resign from the assemblies as part of their anti-government movement to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan from power.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Sharif’s passport had expired on February 16 this year and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had decided that his passport would not be renewed as he was on the Exit Control List. The government claims that any person once placed on the no-fly list could not be issued a passport.

“Health, and disease; life and death are in the hands of Allah,” the interior minister also said while referring to the PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz’s concerns about security threats to her father if he comes back in the country.

Shiekh Rashid said that the opposition had only single-point agenda of ouster of PM Imran Khan from the day one. He warned that the PM was a political heavyweight and PDM cannot defeat him. He said that PDM has faced defeat on all fronts, be it Senate election or its anti-government rallies.

Replying to a question regarding his earlier prediction about split in PML-N, the federal minister said that it was a fact there were two groups having different political ideologies within PML-N. “This grouping is within the Sharif family whether someone accepts it or rejects it.” He said that he had no contacts with PPP but had friendships within the party. He further said that he had already claimed that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman would be ditched by the other parties in PDM.

On the decision of PPP not to resign from the assemblies, the minister said that PPP has made a political decision as former president Zardari keeps his cards close to his chest. “I had wished that peace should prevail in the holy month of Ramadan and the postponement of long march has made it possible,” he said.

“There is peace in politics now,” he said and advised the opposition to come to the assemblies and to make electoral reforms. The PM has made it mandatory that a report on electronic voting and on vote cast mechanism of overseas Pakistanis should be presented in every cabinet meeting, he said.

Replying to another question, he said that PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif had left the country because perhaps he didn’t want to return. He also said that PDM had made a wise decision to postpone the long march in the wake of rising number of Covid-19 cases. He avoided to comment on the internal rifts of PDM.

Regarding his recent visit to Qatar, the minister said that he had conveyed a message of PM Imran Khan to the leadership of Arab country but this could not be made public. He also said that the government wanted that the issues of labourers working in Qatar should be resolved.

He said that the Kuwait was soon going to open visas for Pakistanis that were banned since 2011. “This is a big news in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government as people will get employment opportunities.”

The interior minister told reporters that the Ministry of Interior wanted to reshuffle those officials who had been working in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), National Database & Registrations Authority (NADRA), Immigration Department, and Passport Directorate on same positions for the last 10 to 18 years. He said that all overstayed officers of NADRA and Passport Office in foreign missions abroad were being called back and new officers were being sent on the basis of performance to replace them.

He also said that Pakistan’s visa facility for 192 countries has been made online to avoid rush in the interior ministry and end corruption in the visa section.  

He said that PM Imran Khan had postponed some political rallies due to Covid-19 and Ramadan Package of worth Rs 8 billion announced by the premier was a historic one. The government is going to construct two new dams in the country, he also said.

The government has passed its two and half years and PM has instructed all PTI MNAs and ministers to actively work, the interior minister said. He advised that the top priority of the government should be to control the inflation. The government would have to control the prices of at least 10 essential commodities, he also said.

Govt to introduce 10 

important electoral reforms