Govt unveils proposed constitutional reforms for Senate elections.

The PTI government has vowed to "pay whatever price needs to paid" to ensure that the upcoming Senate elections are transparent and no vote-buying takes place by introducing amendments to three articles of the Constitution, government officials said on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside PM's aide on parliamentary affairs Dr Babar Awan, Information Minister Shibli Faraz emphasised that the government was willing to "pay whatever price needs to be paid" to introduce the amendments, saying the government's purpose for the move was to ensure transparent and fair elections.

Faraz recalled how the PTI government had expelled several members of the provincial assembly (MPAs) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after it emerged they had sold their votes during the 2018 Senate elections.

"We removed 20 sitting MPAs from our government in KP because there was a doubt that they used their vote incorrectly and some transactions happened that were unacceptable. Only the PTI and Prime Minister Imran Khan could have removed sitting MPAs. We have not seen such an example in the past or in the present".

He said the government was ready to "make all required legal efforts" to ensure that the 2021 Senate elections were free and transparent. He termed it an opportunity for the opposition parties to cooperate and "make [the efforts] successful".

The information minister pointed out that the concept of open ballots was also present in the Charter of Democracy - an agreement signed between the PPP and the PML-N in 2006 - and said that it was "time for implementation".

Speaking after Faraz, the PM's adviser Dr Babar Awan said that the government has readied a "package to bring three reforms in the Constitution" after great efforts and several meetings with Prime Minister Imran.

He said the government had received information that "rates have been set" for buying votes in the Senate election, saying the amendments would be a test case for "all political elites of Pakistan in the parliament".

Every party wanted transparent elections but no one had the "courage" to introduce constitutional reforms for it, Awan said, adding it was because it "suited an incumbent government to buy votes to increase its seats".

The government's proposed amendments:

Replace 'single transferable vote' in Article 59(2) of the Constitution with 'open vote'

Changing Article 63(1)(c) to allow Pakistanis with dual nationalities to contest elections

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