ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq on Thursday turned down requests of presidential candidates Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed and Makhdoom Amin Fahim to provide them copies of nomination papers of President Pervez Musharraf.
Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood, the lawyer for Mr Wajihuddin, also submitted an application to the Election Commission alleging that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League had prepared a plan called “Gujrat ballot cycle” to rig the presidential election.
Talking to Dawn, Justice Tariq and Babar Awan, the lawyer for PPP candidate Amin Fahim, said the CEC had promised to provide copies of Gen Musharraf’s nomination papers on Saturday just before the start of scrutiny.
The lawyers said they had also submitted various applications to the CEC suggesting steps to ensure free, fair and transparent polls.
Mr Awan said he had asked the CEC to provide him the copies of Gen Musharraf’s assets declaration and his educational degrees. He said he had lodged a protest with the CEC for not giving sufficient time to the candidates for their election campaigns and alleged that the ECP had become partisan in the presidential election.
Justice Tariq, who accompanied Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed, criticised the ECP for its decision to bar the electronic media from covering the day’s proceedings.
“We have requested the ECP to allow the independent media to cover the scrutiny of nomination papers so that the nation could know the body language of the CEC and the nature of objection to be raised on the candidature of Gen Musharraf.”
He said the CEC through an application was informed that leaders of the ruling PML had devised a plan to rig the election because they had no trust in their own members of the assemblies.
A copy of the application, submitted by Justice Tariq to the CEC and available with Dawn, says: “The ‘Gujrat ballot cycle’ will start when the first voter will enter the polling booth concealed in his pocket a piece of blank paper exactly the size of the official ballot paper.
“The voter (MNA/senator/MPA) will then put the blank paper in the ballot box and will retain the official ballot paper. The voter will then go out of the hall and hand over the official ballot paper to the next voter or someone unofficially representing Gen Musharraf. The ballot paper will then be marked by the said manager/representative and will be handed over to another voter who will put in the box the marked ballot paper and bring back the blank ballot paper issued to him. This cycle will continue.”
The application suggests that each voter should be body-searched by independent officials in the presence of polling agents of all candidates before and after the voter cast his/her vote.
