Imran summons rare party meeting

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has summoned a rare meeting of party’s members of Parliament and the provincial assemblies on January 12 (Tuesday) to take up a host of matters, including its future strategy inside and outside the legislatures and intra-party election.

Party leaders from the provinces will also be part of the proceedings, to be presided over by Imran. ”We intend to have a brainstorming session on how to move forward as a strong opposition and as a political party,” said a Lahore-based senior PTI leader, who was contacted on telephone for his comment on the upcoming political activity here.

He claimed it was quite likely that after the meeting, the PTI chairman might decide to lead his party in the National Assembly with a renewed vigour to take on the government, focussing on its economic policies and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and number of other issues.

“Yes, an important meeting of the party legislators has been called for Tuesday,” confirmed PTI Central Information Secretary Naeemul Haq. However, he declined to share agenda of the meeting. The PTI’s local member of the National Assembly and senior party leader, Asad Umar, is giving final touches to his ‘charge-sheet’ on the economic performance of the PML-N government during its two and a half years rule.

Meanwhile, MNA Dr Arif Alvi, who is PTI’s senior leader, has written a letter on behalf of the party, to the chairman of the Sub-Committee of Parliamentary Electoral Reforms Committee, Zahid Hamid expressing serious reservations over slow progress on four major issues.

He recalled having filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2010 on which the apex court directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to ensure overseas Pakistanis are made part of the electoral process.

“Every prime minister and president, who has visited overseas since the late 90s has made this promise to the expatriates but no progress has taken place,” he noted. Dr Alvi is a member of the committee.

The Election Commission, he charged, had continuously delayed this matter because of its incompetence and lack of interest. “In the last meeting, we found out that this matter, which was sent to the UNDP for consultancy has not made any progress since two months. This information was given only when we questioned them on progress.

Previously it took one year even to come to the conclusions that I had drawn in my paper submitted to the ECP and this committee a year ago that physical and postal voting cannot take place,” he said.

He noted, “On electronic voting machines, we found in the last meeting that the ECP had not made any progress on the decision that the specifications of the machines which were read out and decided more than two months ago. These machines first have to be made then tested and the time is running out to implement the process in 2018.”

Again, on biometric verification, he contended that because of foot-dragging by the National Database and Registration Authority, the process was still in its infancy not because the process had difficulties but it took us a year to try and safeguard Nadra data. He added the issue should have made far more progress on the Nadra side.