ISLAMABAD: Officials from Pakistan’s Election Body (ECP) walked out of a Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs hearing after federal minister Azam Swati accused the commission of accepting bribes.
When the committee met on Friday under the chairmanship of Senator Taj Haider, the argument over the use of electronic voting machines in the next general elections became heated.
Dr. Babar Awan, the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Affairs Advisor, stated that the administration will not determine which voting system will be utilised.
According to Awan, the ministry had written to the ECP, requesting a budget, security, and storage for the polls. He bemoaned the fact that “the ECP did not react to the letter.”
According to a source present at the meeting, a furious Azam Swati then accused the ECP of accepting money from firms that produce electronic voting equipment.
Swati cannot accuse a constitutional authority of receiving bribes, according to the opposition senators, who demanded documentation to back up his accusation.
Swati went on to say that such institutions manipulate all elections and that they should be demolished. The ECP officials protested by walking out.
Senator Farooq H Naek slammed Swati after the meeting was disrupted, saying the ECP should be abolished from the Constitution and the government should run the elections itself.
Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar stated, “Whenever the ECP attempts to become autonomous, they [the government] start to have an issue with it.”
Senator Kamran Murtaza was dispatched by the committee’s chairwoman to persuade ECP officials to return to the meeting.
The ECP employees, according to State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, were “very angry” and would not return to the meeting.
Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and Minister Azam Swati also had a heated conversation, with the PPP senator inquiring about the alleged bribe.
“Shouldn’t Azam Swati inform us who paid bribes to the ECP?” he wondered. “Did it come from the PPP or the PML-N?”
Swati remained stubborn, insisting that he had said nothing wrong.