Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has apologised to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for his disrespectful remarks against the institution, reports Geo News.
The minister arrived at the ECP today for the hearing before a two-member bench comprising ECP members Nisar Ahmed Durrani and Shah Mohammad Jatoi. During today’s hearing, the minister told members that he is a lawyer himself and does “not want to get caught up in show-cause notices”.
The show-cause notices were sent in October to Fawad over calling ECP an “Opposition’s mouthpiece” and Federal Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati for accusing ECP of always “rigging polls” and his statement that “such institutions should be set on fire”.
However, according to Swati’s co-counsel, he could not appear for the hearing as he was busy with the Senate proceedings and asked for more time, adding that a reply would be filed by tomorrow.
Chaudhry, after the hearing, said, “I am sorry, I apologise for my words.”
“I am the spokesperson of the cabinet. At times, I say things but the words are not my own,” he added while saying that he personally respects the CEC and did not abuse anyone.
The members of the election commission directed Chaudhry to submit his apology in writing and warned that charges would be framed on the next hearing whether a reply was submitted or not and adjourned it to December 3.
Before the show-cause notices, the election commission had issued notices to the two ministers on September 14, asking them to provide evidence about the allegations made by them against ECP and the CEC.
Later, on September 23, Chaudhry had sought six weeks to submit a reply but was given three weeks, which ended on October 19. However, Swati chose not to respond at all to the ECP notice. The ECP had then issued a notice to Chaudhry asking him to appear before it on October 27 but neither of them had turned up for the October 27 hearing, prompting the ECP to issue a show-cause notice for November 16 (today).
