[DAWN] Supreme Court Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali observed on Tuesday that the concept of secret ballot is alien to Islam and is rather, derived from the west. "The method of secret ballot is a western concept and has nothing to do with Islam," the chief justice observed, adding that the open ballot system discourages hypocrisy.The observation came during the hearing of an appeal instituted by the Sindh government against the Sindh High Court’s Feb 10 judgment which, while deciding the applications of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
and the PML-F, had declared as void the recent amendments in the local government law, whereby secret balloting was replaced with a show of hands for electing mayors, deputy mayors and other local government representatives in the province.
On Feb 17, a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by the chief justice had stayed the upcoming elections in Sindh to elect mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen, vice chairmen and members of reserved seats in the recently-elected local government bodies.
The last three years have seen a raging debate on whether the local government elections should be held in an open manner or through secret balloting, the chief justice regretted, while also questioning the need for amendments in the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act 2013.