A three-member committee has been formed by PM Imran Khan to launch a thorough probe against vote trading by some members of provincial assembly (MPAs) during Senate polls in 2018, after the emergence of video of this heinous act.
The committee comprising Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, Federal Minister for Human Rights, Shireen Mazari and SAPM on Interior and Accountability Shahzad Akbar was tasked to ascertain the facts against those involved in horse-trading besides forwarding its recommendations to the Prime Minister regarding the video. As said, the committee will present its recommendations to the Prime Minster Imran Khan prior to approaching the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for seeking criminal action against the responsible persons. The Committee will put forward its suggestion to send cases to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE).
As a matter of fact, all this is the action taken by the head of a Political Party to coverup the miss of the party in the garb of investigation on the hands of fellow politicians. Certainly, it cannot be expected from a head of the government, who usually made tall claims touching the sky. This is high time to constitute a criminal commission of serving Judges of Supreme Court or High Court, NAB must take the initiative to launch a criminal inquiry and FIA would have been heading to launch an inquiry into white collar crime falling in its domain. But unfortunately, no solid action has been taken up by any responsible authority / institutions so far.
The case of vote trading is very serious, and it is a challenge for PTI government, who is a champion of accountability and transparency in the country. However, the recent two steps of PTI government are negating its narrative of transparency and accountability. First, formation of one-member Commission into Broadsheet inquiry does not match the principles of justice and transparency. Any commission must have at least three members to ensure justice. The second step is inquiry of criminal case through politicians instead of Country’s watch dogs, who are capable to investigate the true origin of the case. The time is running, and the people are waiting for a concrete step by the concerned authorities to unearth the truth of the video episode of this overall drama of Senate Election.
