Will the presidential election be constitutional? Experts' Analysis
Will the presidential election be constitutional? Experts' Analysis
Transcript
00:00 If the election of the president is not complete, it will be controversial and it can be a challenge.
00:06 And if the Sunni Council gets the seats as a result of a court decision, then what will be the status of this election?
00:13 Thank you very much Maria.
00:16 I think it is true that some seats are vacant in the Electoral College.
00:23 But the absence of seats does not mean that the presidential election is legally wrong or unfair.
00:35 The election will be fine under the law, but some people will not be present.
00:41 Their case will be discussed in the courts later.
00:46 But the presidential election will be the same as the presidential election.
00:53 So the absence of seats is true, but it does not affect the election.
00:59 But Ahmed, the twist in the story is that either these seats are vacant and not given to anyone.
01:05 These seats have been distributed among other communities.
01:09 So if this situation changes as a result of a court decision, will it not affect the health of the election?
01:16 As far as I know, the voting pattern is expected.
01:23 There will not be much difference in the votes that would make a difference.
01:29 Although I do not think it would make a difference legally.
01:33 So I think this is not a big issue.
01:40 The basic mistake is that the Sunni Itahad Council was not given seats.
01:48 I think the seats should have been given to the Sunni Itahad Council.
01:52 And the Sunni Itahad Council should have been legally arranged for it.
01:55 But if the Sunni Itahad Council was not accepted by the party and the seats were not given to them,
02:02 then the natural outcome would be that the seats would be distributed among other parties.
02:07 The result is not wrong, but the real reason why the Sunni Itahad Council was not given is wrong.
02:15 Sir, there is a difference of opinion on this too.
02:16 Like the controversial note in the election commission said that the seats will not be given, but they will not be given to anyone.
02:21 So this opinion is also present.
02:23 Yes, the opinion is present.
02:25 And I think this opinion is not correct.
02:28 If the Sunni Itahad Council should have been given seats, then the issue would have been resolved.
02:35 But if it was not given and it was legally accepted that the Sunni Itahad Council is not a bona fide party to distribute these special seats,
02:47 then obviously the seats will be distributed among the bona fide parties.
02:51 Mr. Rashid, we will take this question to you.
02:54 Yesterday was the election, and the PTI has said that the electoral college is not complete.
02:59 The candidate for the election, Mr. Achak Zahi, himself wrote in the press that
03:03 the presidential candidate of a party, whoever it is, has said that this will not be fair, it will be controversial, and it should be overturned.
03:14 In this context, what do you think, is this the decision of the election commission or not? Will there be elections tomorrow?
03:20 In the constitution, the electoral college is the National Assembly, Provincial Assembly and Senate.
03:28 And the question of completion and incompletion in the constitution is that if the National Assembly is dissolved,
03:36 and it will not be present at that time when the president's election will be due, which will be between 60 and 30 days before the president leaves.
03:51 If the National Assembly is not present at that time, then the election will be held when the National Assembly comes into existence and it will be within 30 days.
04:00 First, the deadline of 30 days will be over, so the election is due.
04:04 Secondly, the incomplete electoral college means that there is no assembly present.
04:09 Assemblies are present, vacancies are present in the assemblies.
04:13 I don't think Mr. Ahmed Bilal can confirm that there comes a time when all the members of the assembly are present.
04:23 We saw that there was no election in the constituency of a minister from 2013 to 2018.
04:29 So it is not possible that all the members of an assembly are present at that time.
04:35 And secondly, the material effect of it, which Mr. Ahmed was talking about, that even if those people come materially,
04:42 will there be any effect on the votes or not? These are the legal questions that will be asked after that.
04:47 But it may not be correct to say that the electoral college is incomplete.
04:51 Rishi sir, the issue is that I have the number count of 19 seats in the National Assembly, which are vacant, 25 seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
04:57 3 seats in the Sindh Assembly, and they have got everyone elected in the Punjab Assembly.
05:01 But has such a large chunk been vacant before this?
05:05 Before the presidential election?
05:07 I agree with you that the assembly is not always complete, but look at the number, it is correct.
05:14 And if they challenge as a result of a court decision, then there are more seats than that.
05:19 So maybe the volume of seats does not make a difference?
05:23 The volume of seats is obviously present, but these seats were allocated.
05:29 Now it can be said about the merits and demerits of it that the Sunni Unity Council did not fight as a party in the election,
05:35 they did not give a manifesto, and the election commission, as their findings are, that they are not a party,
05:45 so they cannot be given, so they distributed it. Now this has stopped as a result of a court decision,
05:51 especially of the National Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
05:58 But the problem is that it is also a constitutional timeline, tomorrow is the last day, which is the election of the president.
06:06 So the matter will go to the courts, but I do not think that there will be much difference in the health of this election.