ISLAMABAD: While the government is keen to expedite electoral reforms, including the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), recent circulars issued by the Senate Secretariat have put key election-related bills on the back burner as the chairman of the Senate committee concerned has postponed its upcoming meeting scheduled for Tuesday (tomorrow) indefinitely, Dawn has learnt.

Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs Taj Haider has through a letter informed the Senate secretary that he has been left with no other option but to postpone the Aug 24 meeting of the committee after his request to invite the science and technology secretary and Nadra (National Database and Registration Authority) chairman for a briefing on i-voting and EVMs was turned down by the Senate Secretariat.

Another issue which forced Mr Haider to postpone the meeting was a unilateral decision of Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to remove Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar from the committee.

The Senate committee was scheduled to meet on Tuesday to take up three government bills seeking amendments to the Elections Act 2017, which had already been passed by the National Assembly. The agenda for the meeting included a briefing by the science and technology secretary and Nadra chairman to the committee on i-voting and EVMs.

However, sources said, Mr Haider was informed by the Senate Secretariat that in line with a “circular” issued on July 26 on the directives of Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, barring the committee heads from summoning government functionaries from other ministries, his committee could not call the secretary of science and technology ministry and Nadra chairman.

“The Senate chairman has been pleased to direct that all the chairpersons of the committees may kindly avoid moving such requests regarding calling or summoning of government functionaries other than the assigned ministry of the committee,” says the July 26 circular signed by the committee’s joint secretary Muhammad Zubair Thaheem, a copy of which is available with Dawn.

It further says that “in case of any matter concerning to other ministries, the same may be referred to the concerned Senate committee for consideration and report on the matter”.

The other controversial circular, which has delayed the key legislations, is about the “change of membership in the Senate committees” which was issued on August 9. According to it, Mr Sanjrani has changed the composition of six standing committees.

“Since the Senate Committee Wing has turned down the request to call [the officials of] Ministry of Science and Technology and Nadra, who are the major stakeholders from the government side for briefings to this committee on i-voting and EVMs despite the unanimous recommendations of the committee as also since one honorable member of the committee Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar has been arbitrarily removed from the committee, I have no option left other than to postpone the meeting scheduled for 24th August till such time that these hurdles created by the Senate Secretariat are removed,” writes Taj Haider.

Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, an active and vocal member of the committee on parliamentary affairs, has been removed from the committee and his name has been included in the house committee on foreign affairs. The other two members whose membership of the committees have been changed are Palwasha Khan of the PPP and Prince Ahmed Omar Ahmedzai of the Balochistan Awami Party.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Khokhar alleged that the Senate chairman had changed his committee without his consent and that he would raise the matter with him next week.

PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman has also sent a separate letter to the Senate chairman, protesting over his decision to remove Mr Khokhar from the committee and asking him to restore the PPP senator as member of the parliamentary affairs committee.

Last month, the Senate chairman had in an unusual move stopped the committee from inviting civil society organisations, including Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), for a briefing on the bills. Days before its scheduled meeting, the committee received a letter from the Senate Secretariat, saying the move to invite Fafen as a special invitee had not been approved by the Senate chairman.

Taj Haider, who also belongs to the PPP, had at that time too written a letter to the Senate secretary, expressing his disappointment over the decision.

Besides Fafen, the committee also wanted 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 crucial issues.

Later, Mr Haider called an informal meeting of the committee for a briefing by Fafen representatives, but it was only attended by him and Mr Khokhar.

When contacted, Taj Haider confirmed that he had decided not to convene the meeting of the committee till the withdrawal of the controversial and “illegal” notifications by the Senate chairman. He said if the committee could not seek a briefing and an input from the Ministry of Science and Technology and Nadra, which were the key stakeholders on the issue of electoral reforms and the use of EVMs, then there was no use of holding the committee meetings.

Mr Haider alleged that the Senate chairman had practically made the committees “dysfunctional” through the recent decisions.

He regretted that the Senate Secretariat had issued the recent circulars on the basis of a similar circular issued by it on May 28, 2018. He recalled that during the committee’s last meeting on July 26, all its members, including the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, had disapproved the Senate chairman’s decision to bar the committee from inviting any member, expert or civil society representative to seek their input and called for withdrawal of the said directives.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2021