Forgotten parliamentary committee: Redundant panel still exists on paper

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary committee to investigate the allegations of rigging in the 2018 elections still exists on paper but has been forgotten by both the government and opposition parties.

The 30-member body, chaired by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, has nothing to show for its existence. The opposition must share the blame for the committee’s redundancy because it has hardly ever pressed for it to be convened.

The government would obviously not want to summon it as it has always asserted that the 2018 elections were free and fair, and its rivals were raising a hue and cry to obscure their defeat.

The committee had held a couple of meetings back in 2018 immediately after it had been formed, but its deliberations were deliberately marred by intense controversies and disputes, scuttling its very objective. A federal minister, who is its member, had challenged the very establishment of the panel on the grounds that it lacked legal and constitutional legitimacy.

Another cabinet member, who is also a part of the committee, had on his own released its terms of reference (ToRs) and had devised them in such a manner that the opposition instantly rejected them without any discussion. It seems that the objective had been quickly achieved. Since the word go, there had been no sincerity and seriousness to investigate the rigging charges. The committee had been set up to placate the opposition parties, which had claimed that massive manipulation was carried out in the polls.

Other government leaders, including even those who figured in the body, had argued that the opposition should approach the election tribunals, which are the legal forum to arbitrate election disputes, and the parliamentary body was inconsequential.

After the March elections to half of the Senate, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Senator Faisal Sabzwari were inducted in the committee as replacements for some of their outgoing colleagues.

Instead of repeatedly stressing that the committee should be called to do the job for which it was set up, the opposition remained obsessed with other modes of public campaigns to put pressure on the government. Additionally, the opposition parties lacked cohesion and coordination as the PML-N and Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) wanted to go the whole hog against the government to protest against the rigging rather than wasting time in the parliamentary panel while the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) held the opposite view.

Hardly any opposition leader has talked about the existence of the parliamentary committee on the 2018 elections, which reflects their nonchalance and lack of faith in the body. Even otherwise, when all sides are gearing up for the next elections in their own ways, attaching any importance to a non-starter committee would now seem out of place for the opposition. The body has lost its utility and relevance as the changed political situation has overtaken it.

The body comprised senior leaders of all the parliamentary groups. Its members were Amir Haider Khan Hoti, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Fawad Chaudhry, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Shafqat Mahmood, Malik Amir Dogar, Tariq Bashir Cheema, Syed Murtaza Mahmud, Ghous Bux Mahar, Syed Khursheed Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Syed Aminul Haque, Maulana Abdul Wasay, Khalid Hussain Magsi, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Dr. Shireen M. Mazari, Anwarul Haq Kakar, Asad Junejo, Dilawar Khan, Jam Mahtab Dahar, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Azam Swati, Sardar Shafiq Tareen and Walid Iqbal.