ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday issued notices to the attorney general and secretaries of cabinet division and law and justice over the recent promulgation of a presidential ordinance making electronic voting mandatory for elections.

Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC also referred the civil miscellaneous application, which was filed by Pakis­tan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Mohsin Nawaz Ranjha, to the chief justice for the constitution of a larger bench on the matter.

The application will be clubbed with another petition, which was filed by Mr Ranjha challenging the successive presidential ordinances.

President Arif Alvi had last month promulgated the Elections (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2021 under Article 89 of the Constitution.

Barrister Umer Ijaz Gillani, the counsel for the petitioner, argued that the Ele­ction Commission of Pakistan (ECP) under Section 103 of the Elec­tions Act, 2017 may conduct pilot projects for use of e-voting machines (EVMs) and biometric verification system in by-elections in addition to the existing manual procedures for voter verification, casting and counting of votes to assess the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of the electronic voting machines.

However, he argued, the ordinance made the EVMs mandatory instead of being optional and eliminated the role of parliament in making decision.

When Justice Farooq asked if the ordinance had been published in the official gazette, the counsel replied that he could not find it on the website of Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP).

Over 54 ordinances

The counsel said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government had so far promulgated more than 54 presidential ordinances, while most of those were issued without any urgency.

According to him, the timing of promulgation of the ordinance about electronic voting added insult to injury as it was issued just two days after a parliamentary committee on electoral reforms had been constituted by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser so that the government and opposition could have a detailed discussion on the matter before arriving at any conclusion.

The petitioner told the court that the im­­pugned ordinance was not a one-off case of “abuse of ordinance-making power”. The National Assembly website indicates that since Sept 24, 2018, the president has promulgated more than 54 ordinances.

It seemed that the respondents had adopted promulgation of ordinances as a matter of routine and a normal method for legislation to minimise parliament’s role in legislation process as much as possible, the petition contended.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2021