ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf members of Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms would turn up in the meeting of its sub-committee when it would meet here on Wednesday (April 15) to have detailed briefing from Chairman NADRA and Election Commission of Pakistan officials on use of biometric system in the elections.
The meeting of the sub-committee examining the legal and technical aspects relating to the reformation of the prevalent electoral system in the country was already fixed for April 15 to have briefing on the use of electronic voting machines and biometric system in the future elections.
As after the constitution of Judicial Commission, PTI parliamentarians had ended the boycott and returned back to assemblies almost after a break of seven months and their three members of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms would be resuming the proceedings of the committee after the same period, as except from the inaugural couple of sittings, PTI members had not attended the proceedings of the committee because they had tendered their resignations from the membership of National Assembly.
Sources in the ruling PML-N informed that as the sub-committee of the 33-member Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms was constituted during the PTI MPs boycott so none from their three members was nominated in the sub-committee and when they would turn up in the meeting on Wednesday the chairman of the sub-committee former federal minister Zahid Hamid would include one or two of their members in the committee as empowered under the rules governing the working of the committee.
At the time of constitution of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf was given representation beyond their due share only to appease and accommodate the party which had raised serious concerns about the impartiality of the last general elections.
Even at the time of constitution of the committee, PTI Chairman Imran Khan was offered the chairmanship of the committee so that he could lead the electoral reforms and remove anomalies and loopholes in the prevalent electoral system in the country.
Sources in Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf informed that the party had already done its homework on electoral reforms and they would be sharing their work on reformation of the electoral system with the committee members.
PTI MNAs Shareen Mazari, Dr Arif Alvi and Shafqat Mahmood would be representing the party in the electoral reforms committee.
EX-CJP PART OF SHARIF’S TEAM: MAZARI
PTI leader Dr Shireen Mazari lashed out at former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday on the issue of the PTI MNAs’ return to the National Assembly.
Mazari said that the recent letter of Chaudhry to the speaker of National Assembly proves once again that Chaudhry was always a part of Nawaz Sharif’s team. Mazari, in a statement, claimed that Chaudhry was in contact with the top military leadership before his sacking by former President Pervez Musharraf in 2007.
She said that the political motives of Chaudhry became the headlines in local media agencies. The PTI leader added that the role of former CJP in the 2013 elections verifies the PTI’s stance towards him.
Even a cursory look at his record of actions relating to Sharifs makes this abundantly clear. For instance, he gave a SC stay order that kept Shahbaz Sharif as CM for 5 years in Punjab before the 2013 elections.
Mazari said that it was strange how CJ Chaudhry actively pursued many corruption cases against some leaders, as well as the NRO case, and castigated a number of NAB chairmen for not being active enough; but he never took up a single case, out of the many lying with NAB, against Sharifs.
In Asghar Khan case once the evidence had come before him of the money that was doled out, he took no action except simply asking the FIA to inquire into the issue. He did not follow up with the FIA and let the whole case effectively be shelved.
After the 2013 elections he held a special function as CJ for the ROs congratulating them for their role in the elections.
Mazari pointed out now even PM Nawaz Sharif, in his speech in Haripur on April 9, has admitted that he knew about rigging but kept quiet so the question is how a PM can keep quiet when he knows wrongdoing has taken place.
The PTI will bring all these points up with proof during the hearing of the defamation case filed by Chaudhry against the chairman PTI as well as proving that the ex-CJ was complicit with Ramday in electoral rigging.