August 27, 2006	Sunday	Sha'aban 2, 1427

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LAHORE, Aug 26: Former law minister S.M. Zafar says the Constitution, by implication, indicates that the decision on a vote of no-confidence as well as well on vote of confidence should be open and transparent, not through secret ballot.

“The reason is that Article 63-A, introduced in the Constitution during Mr Nawaz Sharif’s tenure (as prime minister), provides that a legislator who does not vote in accordance with the direction of the party (he belongs to) can be disqualified as a member of parliament, because his act is considered as defection”, the senior lawyer said while talking to Dawn on Saturday.

Mr Zafar, also a ruling PML Senator, argued that in case of vote through secret ballot it could not be known who had violated the party mandate.

He said: “As a matter of fact, a vote of no-confidence is always an issue of numbers game and it represents the statistical democracy, having little to do with any other issue”.

Asked whether it would not be morally better for the prime minister to go for a secret ballot to establish that he enjoyed majority’s support in the house, Mr Zafar said: “Two opposing issues of morality were involved. One is that the individual should be allowed to vote according to his conscience. The other is that horse-trading is possible in the case of secret ballot. The Constitution doesn’t seem to favour the horse-trading, preferring political morality to ethical morality”.