ISLAMABAD - In a face-saving bid following the failure of the Opposition parties in the Senate to block the passage of a government-sponsored controversial Bill, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday issued show-cause notices to its two Senators seeking an explanation for their absence in the House at the time of voting.
PTI Vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi issued separate notices to Senator Noman Wazir Khattak, who is also the Parliamentary leader of PTI in the Senate, and Senator Brig (Retd) John Kenneth Williams.
“You are being asked and put on notice for being absent from the Senate session on 22-09-2017,” said the show-cause notices separately issued to both the Senators.
The notices further said, “in violation of the party’s decision, you were absent from the Senate session on 22-09-2017 and failed to cast your vote on the Elections Bill 2017 in accordance with the pertinent party position.”
The notices ask both the lawmakers to give reasons for their absence and failure to vote on the Elections Bill 2017 within seven working days to PTI chief Imran Khan.
The PTI, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and other Opposition parties in the Opposition-dominated Upper House of the Parliament are facing criticism for their failure to block the Bill which paved the way for ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to lead his party—Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, again after the bill sailed through the Elections Bills 2017.
The PTI has seven Senators in the 104-member House and its six lawmakers were present in the House when it resumed except for Brigadier (Retd) Williams. However, when the PPP moved an amendment in the clause to bar any disqualified person to lead any political party, it faced defeat only with the margin of one vote from the Treasury Benches.
At the time of voting, Senator Khattak remained absent from the House though he was present earlier.
On last Friday, the Senate passed the new election law with a clause that takes away the bar on any disqualified person from holding party office. The amendment is being seen as Sharif-specific.
Soon after the passage of the Bill, the social media started criticising the Opposition parties including the PTI and the MQM for their mysterious role despite the fact that the House that is dominated by the Opposition.
The MQM played a key role in helping the government to get the Bill passed as its seven out of eight Senators were not present in the House when the voting took place.
MQM’s only Senator Sheikh Attique voted in favour of the government who now has been expelled from the party—an announcement made by the MQM.
All other Senators of the MQM skipped voting.
The other Opposition Senators who were absent in the House included Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sirajul Haq, Pakistan Muslim League-Q’s Mushahid Hussain Syed and Rubina Irfan, PPP’s Rehman Malik, Osman Saifullah Khan and Saifullah Khan Bangash and ANP’s Ilyas Bilour.
It is believed that the absence of MQM’s Senators and the sudden disappearance of Senator Khattak played a key role to pave the way for the ruling PML-N to get the Bill passed.
Some social media activists are stating that the PTI also had a role to sail the Bill through the Senate so that it could also benefit its leader Imran Khan if he is disqualified by the Supreme Court in his Banigala property and offshore company case.
Iftikhar Durrani, the head of PTI’s Central Media Department, denied any such role of the PTI regarding the Elections Bill and said that all these were mere speculations.
“If we had a role in facilitating the government, then why we issued show-cause notices to both the members,” he questioned.
Brigadier (Retd) Williams denied commenting on the show-cause notice.
Sources within PTI said that Senator Khattak had told his party that he did not turn up in the House as the party had decided not to come to the House after a protest walkout. The PTI had staged a protest walkout when the House reversed an amendment of its Senator Azam Khan Swati minutes after it was passed by the House.
IMRAN MUKHTAR