Khattak to head parliamentary panel on rigging

30-strong bipartisan, bicameral committee holds maiden meeting


Our Correspondent November 07, 2018
Former K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak PHOTO ONLINE/FILE

ISLAMABAD: A 30-strong bipartisan and bicameral parliamentary committee formed to probe allegations of rigging in the July 25 general elections on Wednesday unanimously elected Defence Minister Pervez Khattak as its head.

The committee met in the Parliament House to elect it chairman. Khattak's name for the post was proposed by Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). After no one objected to his name, the minister assumed the role unopposed.

National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser had formed the “Parliamentary Committee on the General Elections 2018” comprising 10 members from the Senate and 20 from the National Assembly.

As per an agreement between the government and the opposition, the committee comprises equal number of members from the treasury and opposition benches and will be headed by a government nominee.

Parliamentary body on alleged rigging to meet on Nov 6

At one point, representatives of the government and the opposition were at loggerheads over the name of the probe committee, with the latter insisting that the name should mention ‘rigging probe’. However, the treasury members pointed out that the National Assembly resolution on the issue only talks about a ‘review’.

"The name of the committee is a trivial matter,” Khattak said while talking to the media. “We will settle it mutually,” he added.

Khattak said that the task before the committee during its maiden meeting was to elect a chairperson, “which it accomplished by choosing me”.

The former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister made it clear that appointing a co-chairperson was out of the question. “There will just be a chairperson," he said.

Sub-committee formation

Separately, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal said the parliamentary committee had constituted an eight-member sub-committee to finalise the terms of reference (ToRs) within two weeks.

He said that Khattak was unanimously elected as chairman of the committee. He expressed the hope that the government would extend its cooperation in this regard.

MNA Rana Sannaullah said all opposition parties had agreed to the formation of the committee. He said the sub-committee would prepare TORs. He also proposed that vice chairman should be chosen from the opposition.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said the onus was now on the opposition to prove rigging. He said the 2018 elections were the most transparent in the country's history, which was even acknowledged by the European Union observers.

On the contrary, the 2013 general election were openly rigged, he said, adding that Forms 45 of thousands of polling stations in 2013 were missing, whereas in case of the last election, the forms were uploaded on the election commission website, ruling out any chances of rigging.

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