Azam Swati lambastes ECP in Senate body meeting

ISLAMABAD: 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.