ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has reversed his two `controversial’ decisions directly linked with powers and efficacy of the standing committees following the opposition’s outcry, but made another contentious move by increasing the ruling alliance’s strength in a panel set to take up proposed amendments to introduce electronic voting machines (EVM) and voting right for overseas Pakistanis, informed sources told Dawn.

While Mr Sanjrani has withdrawn his decision to bar the Senate committees from summoning any government official or civil society representatives without his prior approval and brought back PPP’s vocal lawmaker Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar to the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs weeks after moving him to another panel without his consent, he has included Samina Mumtaz Zehri of the Baluchistan Awami Party in it — a move that would place treasury members of the panel in a dominant position when it comes to voting on the bills, an opposition lawmaker claimed.

The composition of the Senate committee has been changed at a time when it is scheduled to meet for three consecutive days starting from Monday (today). The agenda of the committee for the first day (Sept 6) includes briefings on two elections act amendment bills by the secretaries of parliamentary affairs and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), besides briefing on the EVMs by the science and technology secretary and on I-voting by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) chairman.

On the second day, the committee will be briefed by representatives from the Free and Fair Elections Network (Fafen) and Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, as well as former ECP secretary Kanwar Dilshad and Smartmatic International Holding, a private firm added to the list of special invitees on Mr Sanjrani’s recommendation. On the third day on Sept 8, the committee will continue discussion on the bills.

Body meets today after being allowed to summon officials, civil society representatives

The meeting was earlier scheduled to take place on July 12 but had to be put off when the Senate chairman in an unusual move disapproved a briefing to the panel on the controversial elections act amendment bills that was to be given by an amalgam of NGOs working to make electoral processes transparent and credible.

The committee had invited Fafen for a briefing on the bills seeking to amend the elections act. To its disappointment, the committee received a letter from the Senate Secretariat saying the move to summon Fafen as a special invitee had not been approved by Chairman Sanjrani. The letter, the sources said, referred to Rule 187(3) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012, which reads: “A Committee may hold Public Hearing for seeking input from the public at large or any relevant stakeholder and may also invite or summon any person or member having special knowledge to give an expert opinion or give evidence in relation to any matter under its consideration.”

In a related development, Senator Taj Haider, who heads the committee on parliamentary affairs, was informed by the Senate Secretariat that in line with a “circular” issued on July 26 on the directives of Chairman Sanjrani, barring the committee heads from summoning government functionaries from other ministries, his committee could not call the science and technology secretary 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,” sates the July 26 circular signed by the committee’s joint secretary Muhammad Zubair Thaheem, a copy of which is available with Dawn. In case of any matter concerning to other ministries, the same may be referred to the Senate committee concerned for consideration and report on the matter, it added.

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

Informed sources told Dawn that the matter relating to controversial circulars had strongly been taken up by the opposition with the Senate chairman who agreed to revisit the decisions that had virtually made the Senate committee’s dysfunctional.

However, things appear to be improving with the issuance of a fresh circular which reads: “The Hon’ble Chairman Senate has been pleased to direct the Committee Wing to extend all possible facilitation to the Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs vis-à-vis committee room and inviting any person/subject expert to the meeting for input on the Bills mentioned above. A dedicated committee room in the Parliament House will remain available for the meetings as and when required. All special invitees can attend the meetings in the light of the decision of the Chairman Senate”.

Meanwhile, PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar in a statement condemned the unilateral change in the composition of the committee “to tilt the balance in favour of the government on the eve of voting on the controversial legislative proposal of introducing EVMs”.

“The PPP will not permit such brazen attempts to institutionalise polls rigging through a new backdoor and will resist it at every forum,” Mr Babar said.

He said that according to the original composition, the 13-member committee included six members each from the opposition and government with the provision of casting vote available to its chairman Taj Haider under the rules.

To tilt the balance against the opposition, Mr Babar said, the Senate chairman first unilaterally threw out Mustafa Khokhar from the committee without assigning any reason and without having any authority to do so. When it was vehemently challenged and Mr Khokhar’s membership had to be restored, the Senate Secretariat issued a notification inducting an additional member from the ruling PTI.

Mr Babar said that sometime back the Senate Secretariat did not allow the committee’s chairman to invite Fafen for briefing on EVMs. All these moves clearly showed the desperation of the government to rig elections, he added.

He said the PPP would resist the latest move to manipulate bulldozing of the bill in the committee through such underhand tactics.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2021