ISLAMABAD: In an unusual move likely to enrage civil society, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has disapproved a briefing to a panel on the controversial election act amendment bills to be given by an amalgam of NGOs working to make electoral processes transparent and credible.

Informed sources told Dawn that the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs was scheduled to meet on July 12 with Senator Taj Haider in the chair. The committee, which has two bills seeking to amend the Elections Act on the agenda of its meeting, has invited the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) for a briefing on the bills.

To its disappointment, the committee has received a letter from the Senate secretariat, saying the move to invite Fafen as a special invitee had not been approved by the chairman. The letter, the sources said, referred to Rule 187(3) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012, which reads: “A Committee may hold Public Hearing for seeking input from the public at large or any relevant stakeholder and may also invite or summon any person or member having special knowledge to give an expert opinion or give evidence in relation to any matter under its consideration.”

Taj Haider voices disappointment over decision

The sources said such an attempt to prevent a Senate committee from hearing expert opinion on the controversial bills was unheard of and was astonishing all the more as it involved no financial costs.

The sources said chairman of the Senate panel Taj Haider had written a letter to the Senate secretary, expressing his disappointment over the decision.

“Fafen are a major stakeholder in the electoral process in our country whose neutrality and capability as an election observer is universally acknowledged. They are the only organisation who had gone as far as to conduct a scientific forensic survey of General Elections 2018,” the letter reads.

It is learnt that the besides Fafen, the committee also wants to invite the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and former secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Kunwar Dilshad to benefit from their views and make well informed recommendations on the crucial issues.

The letter says these names were discussed in the last meeting of the committee and the members unanimously expressed their desire to get briefings from these experts.

“Kindly recall that I had also requested you to furnish proceedings of the Parliamentary Committee that was instituted to look into rigging allegations of GE 2018 as well as the Report of Senator Rehman Malik’s Committee which had looked into the failure of RTS system in GE 2018. I have yet to receive your response to my request,” Mr Haider said in his letter. “Kindly convey my extreme disappointment to Honorable Chairman. I do not see any reason why the name of Fafen has not been approved. It does not hurt if the Standing Committee does its work in a well informed, dignified and transparent manner. That remains an earnest desire of all Honorable members of the Standing Committee.”

The July 12 meeting is also scheduled to be attended by representatives of the EECP which has already conveyed its concern over most of the clauses of the bills to the government.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2021