ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Rules and Procedure on Wednesday decided to seek assistance from the country’s leading lawyers on the issue of the privilege motion moved by PPP’s Saeed Ghani against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for initiating process of the local government elections in Islamabad in the absence of any law.

The decision was taken by the members of the committee, headed by Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldini of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), after hearing the ECP secretary, who told them that the commission had initiated the whole process on the diktats of the Supreme Court.

“The issue that accordingly needs examination is: whether an order, even of the Honourable Supreme Court, can be a valid defence to a charge of breach of privilege of parliament when the court itself has no sound basis for directing that elections be held under a law that, to its knowledge, does not exist,” said an official handout issued by the Senate Secretariat after the committee meeting.

The committee, therefore, decided that since the matter pertained not only to privilege and authority of parliament but also to the scope of the actions of the ECP and of the orders of the Supreme Court, the committee would like to seek assistance and guidance from lawyers who would be asked to attend the next meeting.

The committee has decided to invite Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt and senior lawyers Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Farooq Naek, Farogh Nasim, Asma Jahangir, Kamran Murtaza and the representatives of Pakistan Bar Council and Supreme Court Bar Association.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2015

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