HYDERABAD: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said Muzaffar Hussain Shah as the presiding officer of the election for Senate chairman rejected seven votes, clearly polled in favour of Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, thereby reading out a script given to him.

He said that if Sindh’s senators had been disenfranchised in these polls then it was great injustice with Sindh and the Sindh Assembly as the provinces were stakeholders in this house of the federation.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the three-day Sindh Livestock Expo 2021 at the Hatri Bypass ground and later speaking to journalists on Saturday.

He said cameras were installed inside the polling booths and hoped that those responsible for it would be given exemplary punishment because the Senate Secretariat was responsible for it.

Federal govt slammed for inadequate tax collection

Then, he said, seven votes polled for Yousuf Raza Gilani were rejected by the presiding officer on the ground that those were not stamped as required. He said the presiding officer and then the chairman himself said the ballot is to be stamped inside the box of the candidate’s name.

He said repeated verdicts of the Supreme Court were there that once the intent of the voter is clear, the vote could not be rejected. Seven ballots were properly stamped on the name of the candidate inside the box. The ‘conspiracy’ was first exposed in the day when the hidden cameras were discovered, he said. The CM said he was confident that the superior courts would not disenfranchise the senators. Surprisingly, he said, the presiding officer observed if his ruling was not acceptable then the opposition should move the tribunal and being a senior lawyer he should have known that a tribunal was not formed in Senate polls.

It clearly shows, the CM said, he read out a script given to him by someone and when Muzaffar Shah saw Gilani winning with seven votes, he rejected those seven votes to declare him the losing candidate.

He said the provinces were stakeholders in the Senate and the senators from Sindh fought Sindh’s case in the upper house. He added that he believed a majority of senators from Sindh had voted for Mr Gilani. He said if those senators were disenfranchised, it would be great injustice with Sindh, its people and the Sindh Assembly.

He said he was disturbed to see the proceedings of the upper house presided over by a seasoned man like Muzaffar Hussain Shah. He deplored that PPP senator Raza Rabbani and Farooq H. Naek were not allowed to speak.

He said the whole country had been ridiculed when the spy cameras were found in the polling booth. What happened in the Senate is not seen even in a classroom for electing a monitor. He said the presiding officer did not take action on cameras’ installation in the polling booth and said the Senate secretary should have been removed because his “connivance” was quite evident and he was in charge of the polls.

He said these seven votes were polled in line with the instructions displayed on the podium that ballots should be stamped inside the box of the candidate’s name. “There was only one box and no separate box was bifurcated on the ballot paper,” the CM said. “The presiding officer read out the script given to him by someone without giving serious thinking to it despite the fact that he is a seasoned parliamentarian.”

Mr Shah said he had high regards for Muzaffar Shah, a friend of his late father, but his ruling did not commensurate with his competence.

He told a questioner that those who installed the cameras in the Senate must have written the script and those in charge of the Senate elections should disclose the names of the author of the script. He said he hoped courts would revisit the past judgements given in such cases that when the intent of the voter was evident votes could not be rejected regardless of the stamp affixed anywhere inside the box.

He was critical of the prime minister’s horse-trading allegations and wondered who told him that Rs70m was paid in the polls. On the contrary, the CM said, corruption charges were levelled within the PTI and that was a new trend set by the ruing PTI.

Inadequate tax collection

He said the Sindh government’s development portfolio would be affected this year again due to inadequate tax collection by the federal government.

He said tax collection did not increase beyond four to five per cent than the last fiscal year’s figures.

He said the rate of inflation remained high and salaries were raised in Sindh.

Mr Shah said resource constraints hindered in implementing the party’s development sector policies.

He invited Sindh Assembly members to visit the expo, enjoy and give views on how to improve it to promote this sector. Unfortunately, he said, Sindh could not realise its potential in the livestock sector but with such efforts, Sindh would achieve success.

Sindh Livestock and Fisheries Minister Abdul Bari Pitafi said it was Pakistan’s largest livestock expo and was better organised than last year.

He said 2,200 animals were brought here against last year’s 750 and pressure of livestock farmers was still there. He said the livestock department intended to educate farmers about market-oriented approaches and to connect them with relevant organisations for investment.

Sindh Culture Minister Syed Sardar Shah said Latif Bhitai focussed on agriculture and livestock when he talked of prosperous Sindh. Agriculture’s contribution to the GDP at the time of inception of Pakistan was 70pc and livestock 30pc but now livestock’s share was around 58pc and agriculture’s 40pc. He said this showed the potential in livestock and this needed to be strengthened and supported.

The programme was attended, among others, by Chinese and Thai diplomats.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2021