Election commission warns senators not to ‘pressurise’ it

ECP reacts angrily to filing of privilege motions in the upper house by five senators over fake degrees issue.

ISLAMABAD:

A fresh tug of war has begun between Election Commission of Pakistan and the Senate after the former reacted angrily to the filing of privilege motions in the upper house by five senators over the fake education qualifications issue.

Now, the ECP has clearly warned the lawmakers that such moves would be tantamount to an attempt to pressurise the ECP and stop it from performing its functions in line with the mandate given by the Constitution and the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The ECP has written a strong-worded letter tabled before a Senate body investigating a news item about fake degrees of parliamentarians. The news, carried by print and electronic media, quoted ECP sources as saying that it had referred complaints against 15 MNAs/MPAs to District Police Officers for investigations and submission of charge-sheets to sessions judges after their educational degrees were found to be suspect.

In a communiqué submitted before the Senate body on Privileges, ECP officials have expressed their serious annoyance at senators who had moved privilege motions against the commission. The senators, Wasim Sajjad, Babar Awan, Ishaq Dar, Afrasiab Khattak and Nilofar Bakhtiar, claimed that ECP officials leaked a fictitious story about the veracity of their educational qualifications and degrees. They contended that the misinformation was deliberate and had embarrassed the public representatives.

The senators had not only blasted the ECP for leaking ‘incorrect’ information to the media about their education qualification degrees, but also asked for ECP officials to be summoned before the senate body on privileges to give an explanation.

The ECP, however, has now shot back. It has warned that any effort by any quarter to ‘pressurise’ the ECP or make it subservient would not only be an attempt to compromise the independence of the commission, which is against public interest, but also be a violation of the Constitution and a ruling of the Supreme Court.

The ECP also claimed in their written brief that they were not the source of the news in question. It pointed out that the secretary ECP had immediately issued a contradiction.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2011.