Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Raza Rabbani on Friday demanded that the Senate should be allowed to investigate the malfunctioning of software used during the recently held general elections, which caused a delay in announcement of poll results.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had blamed a collapse in the results transmission system (RTS) for the unusual delays in results on the election day.

In a statement to the media, Rabbani lashed out at the electoral body and called the constitution of a committee by the ECP to probe the fiasco a ‘mere sham’. “We reject ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob’s letter for constitution of a probe committee,” he said. “Formation of a committee to probe into failure of the RTS system is a mere sham. The terms of reference (ToRs) to form the committee are ambiguous and they ignore the main issue.” The former Senate chairman leader noted that ToRs of the committee did not mention the statement of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) that had said the system was functional. He further noted that the general election had fallen prey to pre-poll rigging. “The collapse of RTS has raised questions on the entire election,” he said. “The failure of RTS has given way to political instability at the Centre,” he said. “We demand that the Senate be allowed to investigate the matter,” he concluded.

Published in Daily Times, August 4^th 2018.