Senate committee deliberates on e-voting system
The Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs on Thursday discussed the feasibility and implementation of electronic voting systems, particularly for overseas Pakistanis, focusing on ensuring accessibility, security, and electoral integrity.
The meeting, chaired by Senator Dr Mohammad Humayun Mohmand, underscored the importance of facilitating the participation of overseas citizens in the democratic process without compromising transparency and reliability of elections.
The discussion also included a comparative analysis of the existing first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system.
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Business Recorder
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Over 58,000 Pakistanis deported from various states since 2023
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Daud Khan is a consultant and advisor for various Governments and international agencies. He has degrees in Economics from the LSE and Oxford – where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and Sanakhawan Hussain is a senior member of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture. He holds a degree in economics and finance Listen to article For years Pakistan's sclerotic wheat sector has been on life support which has cost the taxpayers and consumers billions of rupees. Wheat is the basic staple food for most Pakistanis and makes up the bulk of our calorie intake. However, production has grown slowly, lagged behind population growth and made Pakistan increasingly dependent on foreign supplies. Between 2 and 3 million tons – around 10% of our needs – were imported in 2023-24 and it is likely that similar, if not larger, imports will be needed this year. 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Billions of scarce public money have been spent on subsidising costs of inputs and buying wheat at fixed prices that are often above the free market equilibrium price. The logic that underpinned this policy is that lower fertiliser prices would increase applications and raise yields; and high wheat prices would increase the amount of land allocated to wheat while also enhancing investment in inputs such as seeds, machinery and water. However, the policy has demonstrably not worked. The reasons for this failure are not difficult to understand. Fertiliser subsidies go mainly to medium and large-scale farmers who are already using close to optimal levels of fertilisers. Subsidies mean more money in their pockets but bring about little change in behaviour. In contrast, poor farmers, most of whom use sub-optimal doses of fertiliser, are usually not able to access subsidies. 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Express Tribune
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