Rigging probe: Senators demand MPs’ commission, not committee

ISLAMABAD: Within 24 hours after the decision in the National Assembly on formation of a special committee, legislators in the Senate rejected it in its present form and demanded constitution of a parliamentary commission to probe alleged rigging.

Leader of the House Syed Shibli Faraz apologised to the House for absence of ministers concerned, whose business was part of the orders of the day but were not around. “It is indeed the duty of ministers to accord due dignity to the Senate. I apologise as because of ministers, the proceedings were disrupted and delayed,” he remarked.

Some senators wanted proportional representation of the Senate in the special committee while others spoke for equal representation in it. The sitting, presided over by ANP Senator Sitara Ayaz, was marred by calls for lack of qoroum two times. Twice bells were rung and second time, the government failed to ensure the presence of minimum quorum requirement of 26 senators, leading to early adjournment of the House till Monday afternoon.

The House failed to initiate debate on the Money Bill, the Finance Supplementary (Amendment) Bill, 2018. One calling attention notice was deferred while the other was taken upon the arrival of State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan. It was pertaining to forcible land acquisition in mozahs Tamma and Mohrian, which was referred to the committee concerned for deliberations and report.

The minister denied that the new government had forcibly acquired land and that through an executive order by prime minister during PPP tenure in 2012 and then in 2015, then PML-N premier had called for building a housing society with 50 percent shares each of the SCBA and government employees. He assured the mover Senator Kalsoom Parveen of PML-N that the government would follow the Constitution.

While laying the third progress/monitoring and inquiry report of the committee on general election, 2018, its chairman Senator Abdul Rehman Malik said Leader of the House should talk to the prime minister, as one had to move beyond an NA special committee, or this committee be merged with the new one.

He also insisted that the special committee should take forward the work, they had done so far, saying it would be useless that two parallel committees be doing same work. “It is a national cause. The Upper House must not be ignored. Our demand has been for the formation of a parliamentary committee,” he emphasised.

Senator Aitara Ayaz informed the House that Senate chairman had already written a letter to the NA speaker Tuesday and the situation with regard to the senators’ representation in the special committee would be clear by Monday next.

PML-N Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi rose to remind the government that first of all, an adjournment motion was moved in the Senate and not in the NA, and a debate held with a strong demand for a parliamentary committee and to which, the government had agreed when Leader of the House had made a statement on the floor of the Senate during the last session.

Senator Abbasi contended that they would still insist on the commission or else, a special committee should be formed in the Senate too to probe rigging. He said that they had never demanded constitution of a special committee but of a commission.

He said that there would be serious reservations over the special committee, if the commission were not to be formed. “Please don’t write to the NA speaker, talk to the prime minister to fulfill his promise,” he said.

Senator Sassui Palijo of PPP also spoke for the Senate’s adequate representation in the special committee while Senator Usman Kakar of PkMAP said his party rejected the special committee and wondered how opposition parties agreed to it in the National Assembly a day earlier.

He contended that the issue of rigging and probing should not be made a joke: a committee of the two Houses of Parliament be constituted with powers. Senator Abdul Qayyum of PML-N said that the democratic edifice in a country squarely hinged on the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections and that any doubt on it could shake the very foundation of this edifice that could fall like a house of cards.

“To address very serious complaints by almost all political parties on the conduct of recent elections, formation of a parliamentary commission as promised by prime minister has become mandatory. The complaints of rigging have jolted the nation. It is too serious a business to be left only to NA. The Senate must have its representation in the proposed commission as no law to bring about improvement in the Election Commission or enhance the potency of interim government could not be passed without the concurrence of the House of Federation; the Senate of Pakistan,” he said.

Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini of the Balochistan National Party also backed formation of a parliamentary commission and alleged that the elections were conducted through ROs, whose offices were cordoned off and none could file a complaint and form 45 was also not provided to parties and candidates.

Senator Muhammad Akram of the National Party called for re-election across Balochistan, saying there was rigging in each constituency and that favorites were always brought to the legislatures.

Leader of the House said the concerns of senators were before time and that the government had already agreed last week to form a commission and the details of which were being worked out and next week a comprehensive debate could be held on this matter.

A bill to further amend the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (The Prevention of Electronic Crimes, Amendment) Bill, was introduced in the House, which was referred to the House committee concerned for report.