Pakistan Peoples Party leader Khurshid Shah claimed on Thursday that the government had accepted the opposition’s demand calling for the inclusion of senators in the parliamentary committee for probing alleged electoral rigging.
He was speaking to a private TV channel, following a meeting with National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser.
The veteran PPP politician said the committee was expected to be formed once Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was back in the country after attending the UN General Assembly session.
On September 18, the government and the opposition parties had agreed to form the committee to probe rigging allegations in July 25 general elections. It was agreed that both sides will have equal representation, and that Prime Minister Imran Khan would appoint the head of the committee. During the initial deliberations, no slot in the committee was set aside for the Senate on grounds that the poll rigging issue concerned just the lower house of the Parliament. Later, former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani reminded the lawmakers that Senate was the first house to have raised the issue and demanded that both houses should be represented in the committee.
Published in Daily Times, September 28th 2018.
