PTI rejects blame for aiding passage of Elections Bill 2017

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Saturday dismissed a blame that it had rejected a key amendment to the Elections Bill 2017 in the Senate, saying that the absent senators of PPP and MQM’s eleventh hour support to the government had changed the scenario.

However, it is interesting to point out that while the PTI Senator Kenneth Williams was away attending a course, six senators were inside Parliament till afternoon, but then all of a sudden Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak left for Peshawar.

The combined opposition’s amendment to Clause 203 of the bill was rejected by one vote and had Khattak been there, things could have been different for them.

“Our parliamentary party has informally taken up the matter and there is a possibility that Senator Khattak might be asked to explain as to why he had to leave right in the middle of legislation,” confirmed a senior PTI leader, requesting anonymity.

The PTI has seven senators in the Senate. While Senator Williams was not available, other five present in the House voted for the amendment and they were Muhammad Azam Swati, Syed Shibli Faraz, Mohsin Aziz, Samina Abid and Liaquat Tarakai.

In a statement, PTI’s senior leader Senator Shibli Faraz, who is Chairman of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Trade, regretted the rejection of their amendment and said the controversial development would have a bad impact on democracy and parliamentary system that a disqualified person would be able to lead a political party.

He maintained that it was he who had submitted the key amendment to bar a person, who can’t be elected member of Parliament, to get elected as a party head. He added the amendment was moved in the House by Leader of Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan.

About the joint opposition’s failure during voting, the senator said the MQM’s joining of hands with the government, unavailability of Senators Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Sirajul Haq and three PPP senators weakened the opposition’s initiative and the government cashed in that.

He contended that it was not correct to blame the PTI for this development, as all its five senators present in the House had voted against the law that allowed Nawaz to become party president again.

Meanwhile, PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi will lead a party delegation during a meeting with the MQM team headed by Dr. Farooq Sattar in Karachi on September 26 in the evening to discuss the possibility of having incumbent Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah replaced.  In this context, Qureshi and Dr. Sattar had a telephonic contact Saturday and both agreed to meet.