Staff Reporter
Karachi
Former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani on Wednesday said that the federal cabinet has made an illegal move regarding the matter of the Senate’s elections.
Addressing a press conference, Rabbani said that it is the job of the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold the polls in the Senate, therefore, the decisions related to the election dates also lie with the ECP.
His statement came after the government decided to pushback the date for Senate elections to February instead of March 2021 a day earlier and greenlighted the process of “open voting” in the Senate. “Under Article 213 of the Constitution of Pakistan, only the ECP has the right to announce a date for elections,” Raza Rabbani said. “Similarly, Article 224 of the Constitutions [pertaining to the time of election and by-election] states when the elections should be held.”
He added that the Federal cabinet has made an “illegal move” in relation to the Senate elections by moving the date.
“The term of the current senators will end on March 11, 2021, at 12 noon,” Raza Rabbani said. “Decisions that the Council of Common Interests had to make are being made by the Cabinet.”
