ISLAMABAD: The inquiry commission constituted to inquire into allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections completed hearing in its 39th sitting, on Friday.

The commission, which was constituted under an ordinance after months of bickering and accusations between the PTI and the ruling PML-N, had commenced proceedings on April 9. It recorded testimonies of 69 witnesses, including politicians, government and judicial officers and journalists.

“You deserve a holiday, but we have to start our work,” Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk observed at the end of Friday’s proceedings, pointing towards the counsel representing different political parties.

ECP counsel claims Forms XIV, XVI were more important to compilation of results than Form XV

Concluding his arguments on behalf of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Salman Akram Raja argued that the mandate of political parties was not stolen in the 2013 polls, which actually saw substantial compliance with election laws.

Mr Raja conceded that the 2013 election was not perfect, but said that deficiencies were inevitable in elections in any part of the world. However, he maintained that such mistakes cannot be called fraudulent. “No deliberate wrongdoing was ever committed by the ECP and no evidence was brought before the commission to prove its partiality towards any political party,” the counsel contended.

There is no denying that the presiding officers (POs) were not fully conversant with election procedures, but no incriminating evidence could be produced before the commission, Mr Raja argued.

During proceedings on Friday, the chief justice deplored the pathetic conditions under which election material was stored following the polls, saying that this resulted in Form XV going missing, because no-one, including the ECP secretary, had bothered to check the record.

“What is the purpose of keeping these materials in such a condition? How can one rely on such evidence,” the chief justice asked, recalling K.K. Agha’s report describing the pitiable condition of the treasury where the record was kept.

Mr Raja, while admitting lapses in the storage of election records, said that since the ECP did not own a storage facility for such massive amounts of material and had to depend on the treasury. The counsel, however, revealed plans to acquire land, but said legislation was necessary for this purpose.

Referring to the Form XV matter, the counsel argued that despite the fact that a large number of these forms had gone missing, the results of the elections were still verifiable, adding that the Representation of the Peoples Act (RoPA), 1976, does not suggest any method of how these forms should be transmitted and the procedure was devised by the ECP through the instructions it issued.

There were gaps in sending post-election materials to the ECP, he admitted, but said that other documentation, such as Form XIV, reached the ECP and were available for all polling stations. Mr Raja maintained that the ECP’s focus was on Forms XIV and XVI rather Form XV. The former, along with the packing invoice, was more important for the consolidation of election results, he said.

Talking about leaving the determination of the number of ballots to be printed to ROs in Punjab, the counsel called the decision prudent, because the number of constituencies in the province was far greater than in other provinces, with 150 constituencies for the National Assembly and 300 for the provincial assembly.

Since the work load was far greater, the provincial election commissioner decentralised his duties and shared the burden by rationalising the figures by involving the ROs. Eventually, the number of ballots printed was less than what the PECs had decided.

Mr Raja said the formula used to calculate the number of votes at the polling booth-level was closer to the constitutional assurance that every single voter will have the right to cast his vote, rather than polling station-level estimates, because the non-availability of ballot papers would be a violation of the constitutional command.

He said that ROs had been applying the formula since the 1970s and what happened in Punjab was within constitutional parameters.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2015

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