Major amendments

The wish of political parties united at the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance, which opposed the use of electronic voting machines (EVM) appear to have come true, as the lower house of the Parliament, the National Assembly passed a bill that would remove them from consideration for use in general elections.

The assembly — bereft of opposition to the coalition government, except for 22 PTI dissidents and 3 GDA members — also passed another bill that disallows overseas Pakistanis from voting. Both of these were highly desired by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which railroaded through bills to allow them while the party was in power.

The move was unsurprising, considering that most pundits agree that PTI would be the biggest beneficiary of allowing overseas Pakistanis to vote. The government said that the use of EVMs has been rolled back as the ECP had said that it cannot hold the polls on it and the right to vote for overseas Pakistanis has not been taken back but the matter has been forwarded to the ECP. 

EVMs remain untested in actual elections in Pakistan and are actually falling out of favour around the world due to their susceptibility to outside interference and lack of paper trail. Even if their security can be guaranteed, a large portion of the population may struggle to use them. Even advanced countries with more educated populations regularly see older, less tech-savvy people making mistakes while voting. 

The PDM-allied parties had another wish become fulfilled when the law amending NAB laws was passed. the NAB law amendment brings several welcome changes to the operations of the accountability watchdog, including formalising the selection process for the bureau’s chairman and narrowing its mandate. The bill will remove NAB’s ability to investigate tax matters and regulatory decisions, while also requiring the bureau to have evidence on hand before arresting people, rather than the current ‘arrest first, investigate later’ approach during several investigations. Cases must also be decided within one year, and the duration of remand has been reduced from 90 days to 14 days. Hopefully, these changes can help stop NAB from being used as a tool of political persecution, the main objection of the major political parties that had been raised against the NAB.