ISLAMABAD, May 7: The government told the Senate on Wednesday it was probing who manipulated a two-month postponement of by-elections for 38 national and provincial assembly seats just as the Election Commission made a quick about-face to set the vote on June 26, curtailing the delay to only eight days.

Leader of the House Raza Rabbani, in the first government statement in the upper house over what turned into an embarrassing political row in the ruling coalition in the past two days, said no final conclusion had been reached yet and he would give it out when available.

Mr Rabbani made a brief statement after three coalition senators sought a government explanation over the issue in which the prime minister’s powerful Adviser on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik has come under flak for allegedly being an instigator of the postponement.

The Election Commission announced on Monday it was postponing the election for eight seats of the National Assembly and 30 of provincial assemblies to Aug 18 from June 18 mainly on the recommendation of the NWFP government because of a “deteriorating law and order situation” there besides the preoccupation of authorities with the next federal and provincial budgets to be announced next month. And the NWFP coalition government led by the Awami National Party (ANP) said it had recommended the postponement on the advice of Mr Malik, who is one of the most powerful functionaries of the new government as a confidant of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

But Mr Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the PPP all said they had nothing to do with the move and protested against the postponement along with their main coalition ally Pakistan Muslim League-N, which was hit hard by the postponement and went to the extent of demanding removal of Mr Malik and his trial for allegedly trying to destabilise the government, possibly in league with two confidants of President Pervez Musharraf — National Security Council secretary Tariq Aziz and Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum.

While no public explanation has come from Mr Malik himself, who was not present in the Senate on Wednesday, Mr Rabbani said it was “being inquired into as to who was involved and whether they (the NWFP government) acted on their own or at the behest of somebody”.

“Nothing definite has come before us yet and when it happens, I will place it before you,” he said.

He said one possibility could be that the NWFP government acted on a routine situation report sent to the provinces about possible law and order situation in the coming days.

Mr Rabbani said it was clear neither any major party of the ruling coalition or opposition nor the federal government had advised the Election Commission to postpone the vote in the constituencies where either polling could not be held for different reasons in the Feb 18 general election or which were vacated by parliamentarians elected to more than on seat.

He said he had on Tuesday talked to the prime minister and quoted him as saying that the postponement was unacceptable to the government and that it amounted to a violation of the Constitution, which says a by-election must be held within 30 days of a seat falling vacant.

Mr Rabbani said it was inappropriate to postpone the vote on the recommendation of just one province, where only one National Assembly seat and seven provincial assembly seats were to be contested, while the remaining vacant seats were to be contested in the other three provinces, mainly Punjab where the PML-N says its president Shahbaz Sharif will take over as chief minister after being elected to a provincial assembly seat.

The house later began an opposition-sought debate on the energy crisis in the country, which remained inconclusive before it was adjourned until 10am on Thursday.