ISLAMABAD. The Elec­tion Commission of Pakistan has expressed regrets over allegations of massive rigging in the 2013 general elections levelled by Pak­is­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chair­man Imran Khan and ECP’s former additional secretary Mohammad Afzal Khan.

A meeting of the ECP held here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of acting Chief Election Commis­sioner Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali termed the demand for removal of its members unjustified and unconstitutional, a source told Dawn.

The meeting was held in a hotel, instead of the ECP headquarters, for security reasons because members of the commission found it unsafe to use the road where PTI marchers demanding their resignation were holding a sit-in.

It was noted that under the Constitution the procedure for removal of ECP members was the same as for judges of superior courts.

Afzal Khan recently alleged in a TV interview that the 2013 general elections had been massively rigged and held former chief justices Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and Tasadduq Hussain Jillani, ECP member from Punjab retired Justice Riaz Kayani and some officials of the commission responsible for that. He also said that the then chief election commissioner, Fakharuddin G. Ebrahim, had turned a blind eye and the jurisdiction of the ECP was overstepped by Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry by appointing the returning officers.

Rejecting the allegations as baseless and without any truth or substance, the commission reminded the nation of difficult circumstances under which the elections were held. It observed that a large number of electoral reforms had been introduced to ensure that elections were held justly, fairly and honestly which created a lot of interest outside the country.

It said international observers visited various constituencies and after the poll all of them declared the general elections as free, fair, credible and successful.

Regarding appointment of officials from judiciary as returning officers, the commission noted that during a consultative meeting held in September 2012, major political parties called for appointment of officers from the judiciary to act as DROs, ROs in the elections and resultantly the ECP as a whole requested the former chief justice of Pakistan to allow a one-time waiver.

It was pointed out that in the Judicial Policy, 2009, it had been clearly decided that the judiciary will not be part of any electoral process. However, at the request of the ECP, the National Judicial Policy Forum comprising the chief justices of the four high courts headed by the chief justice of Pakistan allowed the judicial officers to be part of electoral process. Thereafter the chief justices of the high courts placed the services of officials from the lower judiciary at the disposal of the ECP to work as DROs and ROs.

About the allegation of printing of extra ballot papers on May 9, 2013, the commission observed that it carried no weight because the PEC, Punjab, Mr Mehboob Anwar, had clearly denied it.

The commission unanimously condemned the allegations levelled by former additional secretary Afzal Khan and termed them baseless and unfounded as he himself had admitted in the interview that he had no proof or evidence to substantiate the accusations.

It also observed that Mr Afzal Khan himself had admitted in his various interactions with media that the general elections were fair, impartial and credible.

The commission expressed resentment that the former ECP official had tried to malign the “sacred national institution without having any proof”.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2014