ISLAMABAD: Leader of the House in Senate Raja Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq on Tuesday hinted that the Parliament could pass an amendment in Article-226 of the Constitution a day before the Senate election, scheduled to be held on March 5, to curtail horse-trading.

“Sessions of the Senate and National Assembly have been summoned on February 27 and March 4 respectively. A day-long proceeding is sufficient to pass the amendment by both houses and get the presidential nod on it,” he said.

Zafar said under the Constitution all elections, other than that of prime minister and provincial chief ministers, were held through secret ballot. “There is a just need of inserting the name of Senate in the article to adopt the 'show of hand' method in its election,” he explained.

Raja, who is also the chairman of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), said there was consensus among almost all major political parties to end illegal and immoral activity of horse trading, being reported for the upcoming Senate elections.

“This [horse trading] is bringing a bad name to the country and causing harm to democratic norms besides affecting credibility of the election process,” he added.

He underlined the need for discouraging the practice of using excessive money and any kind of influence in elections at every level.

The PML-N government, he said, wants to end the undemocratic practice of horse trading for which it was making efforts to introduce a constitutional amendment, and get it passed by the Parliament.

Zardari speaks in favour of amendment

The former president and co-chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party, Asif Ali Zardari, also commented on the proposal to amend the Constitution, saying that, “Electoral rigging and horse trading at multiple levels is a major issue and needs to be addressed comprehensively in a holistic manner instead of looking for piecemeal solutions.”

It is good that the government seems to have realised that horse trading in senate elections is a serious issue that has done great disservice to the Parliament and political processes and needs to be addressed, he said.

Zardari said electoral reforms and preventing horse trading should be addressed by all parties together and not by the government alone.

“The government should therefore convene a meeting of all political parties to address horse trading in Senate elections as well as electoral fraud and rigging of all types including those recently agitated by Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, he concluded.