NA Special Committee: Govt, opposition start consultation process

ISLAMABAD: The consultation process within the government and opposition parties started for finalising the name of the members for the Special Committee of the National Assembly to probe the allegations of the rigging in the general elections 2018.

The National Assembly passed the motion on Tuesday for the formation of the Special Committee of the National Assembly to probe the allegations of the rigging in the general elections 2018 after the government and opposition agreed that there would be equal representation of government and opposition in the special committee while the chairman of the committee would be nominated by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser wrote letters to all the parliamentary leaders seeking their nominees for the committee.

It is expected that the parliamentary parties would send their nominees to the Speaker who will announce the composition of committee for paving the way for the committee to start its task. But at the same time, the opposition senators also lodged strong protest for ignoring the Senators and rejected it in its present form and demanded constitution of a parliamentary commission to probe alleged rigging.

However, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani had already written a letter to the NA Speaker Tuesday and the situation with regard to the senators’ representation in the special committee would be clear by Monday next.

Interestingly, the NA opposition including PML-N, PPP and MMA in the negotiations with the government before the passing of the motion agreed with the government for formation of the special committee of the National Assembly rather than the parliamentary commission.

The foremost task of the special committee is to finalise Terms of references (ToRs) with regard to the allegations of rigging taking further steps as mandated in the ToRs and submit a report within such time as is agreeable by the committee.

NA Speaker Asad Qaiser has already indicated that the committee will be comprised of 18 members that includes 9 members each from the government and the opposition. According to numerical strength of the opposition parties at the opposition benches, it is expected that the PML-N would have four members, three members from the PPP and one member from the MMA and ANP each while on the government side, the PTI has still to decide about giving the representation to its allies in the committee.

Sources said the PTI wanted to have representation of 5 members in the committee and its allied parties including MQM-P, GDA, BAP and BNP will also be given representation. Though the consultation process has started on finalising the composition of the special committee, the Senators warned that it would not bound to pass any legislation if proposed by the special committee of the National Assembly. When contacted Senate ex-chairman Raza Rabbani to get his views on not inclusion of the senators in the Special Committee, he took a strong note of the development as he maintained that it is unfortunate that the newly elected National Assembly in its first session has dealt a blow to the unity and supremacy of Parliament.