The government’s claims of taking the ignored and backward areas into the mainstream stood exposed on Tuesday as the only representative from FATA in the parliamentary committee on election commission formation was replaced by a PML-Q nominee – an open message to the FATA group that the government did not need their support anymore after its alliance with the Q league.
However, after being ousted, the parliamentary leader of the MPs from FATA Munir Khan Aurakzai on Tuesday looked perturbed but vowed to resist the move. Talking to Pakistan Today, Aurakzai said he was not taken on board on the decision taken by chairman of the committee, Khurshid Shah and he had only come to know about the decision through the media. “Though I was with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani today who consulted with me on the nominees of commission on Abbottabad incident. But I was not informed about my expulsion from this committee. We will resist such an autocratic attitude,” he added.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s Secretariat on Tuesday issued a notification for the formation of a new parliamentary committee to work on the restructuring of the Election Commission of Pakistan. Per the notification, three changes have been made in the committee with the FATA nominee Munir Aurakzai ousted and PML-Q nominee Ghayas Ahmed Mela included in the committee. Zahid Hamid of the PML-N was included in the committee in place of Amir Muqam of the PML-Q. Raja Zafarul Haq replaced another PML-Q leaguer Haroon Akhtar Khan in the committee.
The new parliamentary committee will meet today (Wednesday). The committee comprises of four senators – two each from the treasury and the opposition benches, including Islamuddin Sheikh, Haji Muhammad Adeel, Raja Zafarul Haq and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri while eight MNAs are also members – four each from the opposition and treasury benches including Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Arif Aziz Sheikh, Dr Farooq Sattar, Ghayas Ahmed Mela, Khwaja Muhammad Asif, Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Tehmina Daultana and Zahid Hamid.
