LAHORE: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has questioned the ‘hidden agenda’ behind the hasty legislation on the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

“Will those who stole General Elections 2018 and bulldozed 33 Bills including EVMs & State Bank yesterday, share with the Nation their hidden agenda as to why this has been done to slide the country further down the hill?” he asked in a tweet on Thursday.

Mr Sharif has been living in London since November 2019 on medical grounds.

On Wednesday, Imran Khan triumphed in getting through a record number of 33 bills, including the controversial bill on electronic voting machines (EVMs) and I-voting for the overseas Pakistanis, from the joint sitting of parliament after facing initial resistance from the opposition, which later desperately resorted to a noisy protest and a token walkout from the house after failing to complete its numbers.

Opposition Leader in National Assembly and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said in a tweet: “Yesterday’s joint session will be written in infamy in the country’s history. The govt’s conduct & bulldozing of dozens of bills through Parliament undermined the spirit of democracy. Can the regime save itself from the public wrath by trying to rig the system in its favour?”

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2021