Rigging investigation: Govt wants forensic audit before probe panel’s formation

ISLAMABAD: Even before its formation, the government-proposed parliamentary committee for probing allegations of rigging in the general election is already mired in controversy after lawmakers in the government favoured a forensic audit in this regard.

Senators belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) put their weight behind a proposal for conducting a detailed forensic audit before the formation of the parliamentary committee, but opposition lawmakers called for the immediate formation of the panel.

A well-placed source within the PTI said that over the past few days, Prime Minister Imran Khan held separate meetings with lawmakers, including Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz and Senator Azam Swati.
The prime minister, he said, had agreed that the government would first carry out a comprehensive forensic audit of the general election before the formation of a parliamentary committee. The government, he said, had decided that the parliamentary panel would investigate allegations of rigging in the light of the findings of the forensic audit.
Last week, the National Assembly unanimously approved a resolution for setting up a committee, chaired by a government member, to probe into the rigging claims by opposition parties.

During the Tuesday’s NA session, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had presented a resolution calling for “a parliamentary committee to make Terms of References (ToRs) and probe the alleged rigging in the general election”.

The resolution was unanimously adopted after it was again tabled by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan.

A government functionary said that the PM personally favoured a forensic audit before the formation of the parliamentary panel.

“But there is little the PM or the government can do if the opposition parties insist upon forming a parliamentary panel right away. It is the opposition’s call to press for conducting the forensic audit of the general election. If the opposition is not serious [about it], there isn’t much that can be done,” said the government functionary.

Earlier, PM Khan had formed a committee, headed by Senator Azam Swati, to probe into the failure of the Result Transmission System (RTS) during the July 25 elections.

Subsequently, the committee suggested suspending three top Nadra officials – Chairman Usman Yousuf Mobeen, Director-General (Projects) Zulfiqar Ali and DG (Software Projects) Ahmareen Ahmed, who also happened to be the brother-in-law of the chairman Nadra – till the inquiry was finalised.

The committee is yet to release its findings.

A few days ago, Senator Swati had told The Express Tribune that the committee had also recommended conducting a forensic audit of the RTS failure by the National Telecommunication and Information Technology Security Board (NTISB), comprising forensic and software experts from intelligence agencies, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Ministry of Information Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Nadra, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other relevant organisations.

He said that the parliamentary committee should be formed after the forensic audit concluded.

“Forensic audit is necessary before the formation of any parliamentary panel. Parliamentarians barely know anything about IT-related issues. In the past, I served as federal Minister for Science and Technology but I had little understanding of complex IT-related matters. Technical input from experts would help the parliamentary panel launch an effective and transparent probe,” said Swati.

The senator also said that the RTS failure had no impact on the election results. “The election results were delayed, but there’s no possibility that the RTS failure caused any changes in the results. Election results sent by presiding officers can neither be modified nor changed. So, the credibility of free and fair general elections 2018 is beyond any doubt. The question is: why did the RTS fail?”

Last week, senators of opposition parties called for Senate’s representation in the parliamentary panel.

The Senate also wrote a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly in this regard.

It is learnt that Speaker Asad Qasier has yet to respond.

Source: Express Tribune