A special meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Interior has directed to initiate an inquiry into the allegations of rigging in the recently held elections and the controversial failure of the RTS system.
The committee meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator A Rehman Malik on Wednesday in which the concerned authorities were directed to start probing on the stamped ballot papers found in the garbage after the elections.
The chairman said this committee was appointed by the Senate to coordinate with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), law enforcement agencies and police to oversee the polling and monitor the security situation. He said, "We are aware of the complaints raised by different stakeholders of the elections regarding the failure of Result Transfer System (RTS) and Results Management System (RMS)." He said that a large number of stamped ballot papers had been spotted along roadsides, dustbins and in some classrooms which were earlier used by the election staff as polling stations. And, these official ballot papers were also found outside the polling stations in other cities of the country as well. He said the committee has desired to investigate all the concerned complaints received from different quarters and submit a comprehensive report to the Senate.
Rehman Malik said he had written a letter to the ECP on the very next day of election i.e. 26th July to know about the failure of RTS and RMS. He told that he was informed by the ECP that they have written a letter to Cabinet Division for appointing an investigative team of technical experts to investigate the complaints and fix the responsibility.
Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati said this timely action is good for the democratic process as he believes in fair, free and transparent elections and the responsibility of failure of RTS and RMS must be fixed.
Senator Chaudhry Tanvir Khan asked about the price of votes' verification from NADRA as he said millions of votes are being rejected in some constituencies saying if recounting and rechecking of rejected vote is made, he is sure the winning candidates will not be those who are declared winners now.
The chairman committee sought explanation over absence of NADRA chairman from the meeting and said as NADRA fails to give the exact cost for verifying the thumb impression on vote so it is directed that the cost of per vote verification will be Rs 10.
He also inquired from DG NADRA about the statements published in media in which NADRA had stated that RTS was working perfectly on the election day. The DG NADRA denied that no such statement was issued by the NADRA and they had issued rebuttal of the news report.
Malik directed NADRA to provide the press clippings and press statement in which the earlier news item was denied. The ECP director general (IT) also briefed the committee about the Result Transfer System (RTS) and Result Management System (RMS) and said RMS was monitored and operated by ECP but RTS was solely operated and monitored by the NADRA and ECP was absolutely relying on the NADRA. Members of the committee expressed grave concerns on knowing that ECP had handed over the system to NADRA being another institution.
Malik asked ECP DG IT if any agreement was signed between the NADRA and ECP and who was monitoring the systems technically. He further asked how powers were delegated to NADRA and what technology (pulse, digital or internet system) was used to transfer the data. The DG IT ECP said that private company PTCL was hired to which the chairman committee asked to provide answers to these following question to the committee before August 20.
The questions include: "Under what authority such an agreement was signed between ECP and NADRA? Who was monitoring the security of system? What technical backup support was there? What steps were taken to avoid the hacking? How much funding was given to NADRA and PTCL? Was there any violation of PPRA rules?"
Members of the committee agreed to call another meeting of the committee on August 20, 2018 to decide whether to constitute a judicial commission or the parliamentary committee to investigate into the complaints and irregularities during the elections including failure of RMS & RTS systems, ouster of polling agents, unavailability of form-45 and throwing of stamped ballot papers.
The committee chairman strongly condemned the burning down of 12 girls' schools in Diamer and Chilas districts of Gilgit-Baltistan. He directed the government of Gilgit-Baltistan to submit a comprehensive report on the incident in the next meeting of the committee.
The committee reconsidered the suo motu notice taken by chairman committee on the mysterious death of three girls in Cholistan Desert of Fort Abbas, Bahawalnagar. Senator Malik expressed dissatisfaction over the report submitted by Punjab Police to the committee that didn't mention the physical assault and the exact cause of the death of the girls, suspecting the death as murder. Later, Inspector General Punjab Police, DPO Bahawalnagar and investigation officer failed to properly investigate the unfortunate incident.
Malik said since the day first, the Punjab Police have not been cooperating with the committee on the said issue and are hesitating to share the facts with the committee.
The committee directed to register a case against the police officials who failed to investigate the matter and disclose the facts. The committee also ordered formation of a high-powered JIT to be headed by police officer of additional inspector general rank duly supervised by committee member Rana Maqbool Ahmed to investigate the mysterious murder of three girls. The committee ordered that the forensic laboratory should report about the defective samples and why it could not respond to the higher authorities for informing about these defective samples.
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