Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said on Tuesday the government was working on initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) if it did not tender resignation.
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said on Tuesday the government was working on initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) if it did not tender resignation.
He was briefing the media about the decisions taken at the cabinet meeting here, which met with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair after the election of the chairman and deputy chairman of Senate. The minister said consultations were held with the attorney general and they were working on the case that if the ECP -- chief election commissioner (CEC) and four provincial members -- did not step down, the government could initiate the contempt of court proceedings against them and also use all available options on that count.
Fawad Ch was flanked by Minister for Industries Muhammad Hammad Azhar. Fawad explained that they should themselves realise the situation and bow out; otherwise, the government had solutions (options) available to it and one of them was the contempt of court proceedings against them; and others could also be used. “In the capacity of a political party, we demand you step down so that the Parliament could install a new election commissioner,” he told the electoral body.
The minister justified the government demand, saying that the incumbent commission had lost confidence of all political parties after its failure to conduct the Senate elections in a free, fair and transparent manner and check corrupt practices.
Referring to Article 218 (3), Fawad contended that the Election Commission’s prime responsibility was to ensure free, fair and transparent elections and stem chances of corrupt practices, which it failed to do and all political parties had consensus thereon.
Likewise, he continued that the Election Commission was given an advice by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to adhere to its responsibility as per the Constitution and make use of technology so that free and transparent elections of the Senate could be held, but it failed to implement the same.
Even before the elections, he pointed out, some videos went viral and then asked journalists were the Senate elections free, fair and transparent and there were no corrupt practices involved in the process.
Asked about the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s future course of action against the government, including the option of resignations, the minister said that the leaders, which were advocating resignations from the legislatures, included Mehmood Achakzai, Aftab Sherpao and Awais Noorani. And then asked how much stakes they had in the system, and then himself replied: ‘zero’. He billed the PDM as a political orphan.
Fawad also noted that there were a total of 1,150-1,200 constituencies in the country, whereas Maulana Fazlur Rehman tended to field hardly 40-50 candidates and he was also pushing for resignations. The minister hoped that both the PPP and the PML-N would not go for such a rash decision, having stakes in the system and these parties were not like other parties in the PDM.
“Even if a decision is made on resignations, then one will see how many of them will implement it, as already what happened in their ranks during the Senate chairman and deputy chairman elections was before all of us,” he added.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan mocked the PDM and said on his Twitter account that he had already predicted that the alliance would soon become a tale of past.
Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said the opposition was pretending unity just to save personal interests as the PDM was disintegrated. Talking to a private news channel, he said there was no ideology and consensus among the PDM except that to protect corruption of their leaderships.
The minister said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party had no confidence on each other and both their leadership were trying to use each other. He said the opposition was not coming out on the roads for the country's larger interests but they were defending and protecting looted money and other corrupt practices of their leaderships which they had made during their tenures.
Asad Umar said Nawaz Sharif had deceived to the nation as he was living abroad and enjoying lavish life there. Meanwhile, in a tweet, he said the PDM got nothing, but failure.