Pervez Khattak elected chairman of committee to probe polls rigging

ISLAMABAD: A 30-member parliamentary committee on Wednesday unanimously appointed Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Pervez Khattak to chair the committee formed in order to probe into the alleged rigging in 2018 General Elections.

During the meeting, Pervez Khattak’s name for the chairperson’s position was proposed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Naveed Qamar, a role which was assumed by the federal minister immediately, as no objections were raised against his election.

The parliamentary committee held its maiden session today to finalise the terms of reference (ToRs) for conducting investigations into rigging allegations, in addition to deciding the name of committee’s chairperson.

The government had already nominated Defence Minister, Pervez Khattak as the chairman of the parliamentary committee, probing alleged rigging.

On October 15, the government announced the formation of “Parliamentary Committee on General Elections 2018” to probe alleged rigging in the general elections after hue and cry of the opposition.

The committee comprises thirty parliamentarians including 21 members from the lower house, [National Assembly] and nine from the upper house, [Senate]. According to a notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, the parliamentary committee will be responsible for finalising the Terms of Reference (ToRs) to initiate probe into allegations of rigging.

Pervez Khattak, Shafqat Mehmood, Shireen Mazari, Fawad Chaudhry, Amir Dogar, Khalid Magsi, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Amin-ul-Haq, and Tariq Cheema are among the members of the government who were part of the committee.

While Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Tanvir Hussain, Ahsan Iqbal, Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Rana Sanaullah represented the opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the committee.

Former leader of opposition Khursheed Shah, Naveed Qamar and Raja Pervez Ashraf represented the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the committee.