Inquiry commission: Nawaz forms three-member committee to defend government

Senior leaders asked to update themselves on panel proceedings.

ISLAMABAD: As the inquiry commission probing rigging claims in the May 2013 polls prepares to finalise its report , Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has formed a three-member committee to defend the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and fend off the opposition’s criticism, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Sources said the PM has asked three senior leaders – Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi – to come to the front and defend the party and government’s position on alleged rigging.

They said the three leaders have been asked to regularly get an update from the concerned on day-to-day proceedings of the inquiry commission and to exchange notes with each other.

The PM’s daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif will also work as a liaison officer among the three-member committee, the party’s media cell at the PM House and the PM himself. Currently, Maryam is heading the media cell at the PM House.

Sources within the PML-N said the PM had taken a dim view over the party’s performance in defending the leadership and countering Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) narrative not only in the court but also in the media.

They said in the first 35 days of the inquiry commission’s proceedings, the PML-N’s media cell representatives – Talal Chaudhry, Zubair Umar, Anusha Rehman and Tariq Fazal Chaudhry – failed to respond adequately to the PTI allegations. They also failed to defend the federal government outside the court either in the media or at any other forum.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2015.