ISLAMABAD: Not impressed by the material submitted to it by political parties to scrutinise and determine whether or not the 2013 general elections were systematically rigged, the poll inquiry commission issued on Monday its own questionnaire for the parties to answer.

“The commission had asked (political parties) to examine all aspects of the last elections within the bounds of the terms of reference envisaged by the ordinance but by and large what we received does not confine to ToRs,” observed Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, who heads the three-judge Judicial Commission.

“We have received 101 applications by different parties, but the allegations levelled are of general nature and, therefore, we are distributing our own questionnaire to make the task of the political parties easier and focussed,” the commission said.

Firstly, the three-point questionnaire asks the political parties to specify why they believe that the elections were not conducted honestly, fairly and justly and also indicate the material and witnesses which they will rely on to support the allegations.

Secondly, the political parties are required to explain that if they allege that the elections were manipulated or influenced pursuant to a systematic effort by design then provide who made the plan/design, what was the plan, who implemented the design and how the plan was implemented, along with the material and witnesses on which they will rely to support their allegations.

Thirdly, the parties have to state whether the systematic effort as mentioned in section 3(b) of the presidential ordinance under which the Judicial Commission was set up to investigate the allegations of rigging includes only the National Assembly seats or the provincial assembly seats as well. And if it only relates to the National Assembly, does it include all the four provinces or confined to certain provinces?

“The questionnaire is a tightly knit outline shutting all possible avenues for political parties to escape or avoid specific answer the commission needs to satisfy itself before handing down a finding about the allegations of rigging,” a legal expert said.

Senior counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, representing the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, told the commission that the party would try to address the questionnaire, adding that it would like to see the inquiry conclude within the timeframe of 45 days as provided under the ordinance.

But Justice Amir Hani Muslim, a member of the commission, observed that practically it appeared to be very difficult to complete the investigation in 45 days.

Mr Pirzada said that a lot of hard work and labour had gone into collecting the material and documents and the preponderance of evidence provided to the commission be taken as a failure on part of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct the elections fairly.

This led Shahid Hamid, the counsel for the ruling PML-N who was also standing at the rostrum along with Mr Pirzada and ECP counsel Salman Akram Raja, to grin.

“Do not snigger,” Mr Pirzada reacted.

Mr Hamid said he would not retort because Mr Pirzada was a heart patient.

“You (Mr Hamid) are heart patient and standing at the last leg of your health,” Mr Pirzada angrily said, adding that he had enough energy to fight back.

However, Mr Pirzada later expressed regrets which were accepted by Mr Hamid.

The chief justice clarified that the commission, which was being assisted by senior lawyers as well as K.K. Agha, would consider constituting a probe team consisting of intelligence agencies like ISI, MI, IB, etc, as suggested by the ordinance only when it realised that it was not in a position to handle the situation.

Mr Hamid regretted that the allegations levelled by parties contained unprecedented assault against not only the independence of judiciary but also the constitutional office like the chief election commissioner, almost equivalent to the status of a Supreme Court judge.

“They have spared none who even have a slightest role with the conduct of the elections like returning officers, polling officers, etc,” the counsel said, adding that they had demeaned all from top to bottom and also mentioned a troika of former judges to fix the election results by appointing returning officers of their choice, etc.

Referring to the demand for constituting a special investigation team of intelligence agencies, Mr Hamid asked should the team go around investigating former judges and returning officers or anyone who had anything to do with the elections.

This, he said, would be highly scandalous and the commission should recommend to the chief justice to look into the possibility of initiating contempt proceedings against the parties who had levelled such allegations. He suggested to the commission to consider striking out such allegations from the documents it had received.

But the chief justice observed that these were mere proposals.

Mr Hamid said the margin of PML-N victory over the PTI was 7.1 million and by claiming that 7.1 million votes were included in the ruling party’s count, the PTI was saying that 200 plus votes were stuffed in 33,000 polling stations by the winning party.

He argued that the plan to systematically rig the elections was a criminal conspiracy in terms of Section 120-A PPC for which reasonable evidence beyond any doubt had to be furnished. Otherwise, he added, it might lead to a high treason under Article 6 of the Constitution against the architect of the plan to rig the elections. Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2015

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