'Set such institutions on fire': Azam Swati lambastes ECP in Senate body meeting

Railways Minister Azam Khan Swati on Friday lashed out at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), accusing it of "always" rigging polls and said such institutions should be “set on fire”.

He made these remarks during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs chaired by Senator Taj Haider to discuss proposed amendments to the Elections (Amendment) Act, 2021.

The standing committee has 14 members with four from the PTI, three from the PPP, two from PML-N, two independents, and one each from the BAP, the MQM-P and the JUI-P.

Before the committee voted on the proposed amendments, Swati came down hard on the ECP and alleged that the commission took bribes to rig polls.

He said the ECP was making fun of the government, adding the commission was not entitled to “ruin” democracy in the country.

Following his remarks, the ECP officials who were present during the meeting staged a walkout in protest.

Swati's remarks also drew criticism from the opposition. PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said that the party had only ever highlighted negative characters within institutions.

"But the government is threatening to set a whole institution on fire and there is no one to [hold them] accountable,” she said.

PPP Senator Sherry Rehman called out the minister's "seriously inappropriate behaviour".

“If it does not bend to their will, to say a constitutional institution should be burnt down is like saying let’s just dispense with all democratic norms and get on with our model of one-party authoritarianism. Rig the system for us or trash it,” she said.

'ECP not above the law'

During today's meeting, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan said that the election commission was not above the law and had to work within its ambit.

The ECP in a document submitted on Sep 7 to the standing committee had warned that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were prone to tempering and the software could easily be altered. “It is nearly impossible to ensure that every machine is honest,” the ECP had noted in the document.

Responding to the ECP's reservations, Awan questioned the commission for delaying work on introducing EVMs. "Why do we feel threatened by the technology?" he asked.

He said the government had also written a letter to the commission about the budget and security of EVMs, but didn't receive a response.

Haider stressed the need to listen to the ECP's objections regarding the proposed amendments to the election law.

At one point, Swati walked out of the meeting with his fellow parliamentarians while calling out the chairman for allegedly not allowing government members to take part in the session through video conferencing.

Afterwards, the committee — in the absence of the members of the treasury benches — rejected the proposed amendments concerning voting rights for overseas Pakistanis, use of EVMs in the next general elections and holding Senate polls through the open ballot.

The Elections (Amendment) Bill 2020 was introduced in the National Assembly on Oct 16, 2020 and it was passed by the standing committee concerned on June 8 amid the opposition’s protest. The bail sailed through the lower house on June 11.

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