ISLAMABAD: The special parliamentary committee, constituted by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to probe allegations of rigging in the July 25 general elections, on Friday formed a sub-committee headed by Education Min­ister Shaf­qat Mahmood to finalise terms of reference (ToR) for it.

The decision to form the sub-committee was taken at the second meeting of the special committee held here with its chairman, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, in the chair.

Out of 30 members of the special committee, 16 from the government and the opposition attended the meeting. During the course of discussion, the committee chairman proposed the name of Mr Mahmood as head of the sub-committee and the members agreed to it.

The meeting also finalised the names of the sub-committee’s members with consensus. The government and its coalition partners will be represented in the sub-committee by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Barrister Moh­ammad Ali Saif of the Mut­tahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and Sarfraz Bugti of the Balochistan Awami Party.

From opposition parties, the names of Rana Sanaullah of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Nav­eed Qamar of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party and Maulana Abdul Wasay of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal have been finalised.

After the meeting, Mr Khattak told reporters that the sub-committee was supposed to complete its task of finalising the ToR in 14 days.

He said the committee could summon representatives of whichever departments it considers necessary and the special committee would decide the matter as per its mandate.

Mr Sanaullah said that investigation into the allegations of rigging in the July elections would not be a difficult task for the special committee.

Senator Rehman Malik of the PPP told reporters that the sub-committee would soon start its work.

He said this committee had representation of members from both the Senate and National Assembly and, therefore, findings of the main committee should be presented before a joint session of parliament.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2018