ISLAMABAD: The Elec­tion Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday gran­ted Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s request to inspect the electoral record of NA-122 Lahore, the constituency where he lost to National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. Mr Khan had first filed a petition to this effect about a year and half ago.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the commission, chaired by acting Chief Election Commissioner Anwar Zaheer Jamali and came at a time when the PTI is staging a sit-in near ECP headquarters and the commission is repeatedly being accused of having played a role in alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.

Under Section 44 of the Representation of People Act (ROPA), 1976, returning officers are supposed to forward sealed packets containing ballot papers, counterfoils of issued ballot papers, marked copies of the electoral rolls, ballot paper account, tendered and challenged ballot papers as well as the list of tendered and challenged votes. Under Section 45, these documents are to be retained by the commission and, except for ballot papers, are open for public inspection.

It seems ECP officials themselves were not fully aware of the commission’s responsibilities under ROPA as custodians of electoral records. This, sources say, was why it took so long to respond to Mr Khan’s request which, according to the PTI’s Hamid Khan, was submitted soon after the elections in 2013. Mr Khan said that although a decision had been taken on the application last year, the commission did not act on it.

Commission officials not aware of responsibilities, delayed action for year-and-a-half

In Wednesday’s meeting, ECP members decided that the provincial election commissions would arrange for store-rooms in their provincial offices to keep the relevant records and whenever an inspection is ordered, the provincial commission would make arrangements for it.

The commission also viewed a recording of the oft-criticised address former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry delivered to returning officers ahead of the 2013 elections and “found nothing objectionable in it”. It also noted that the decision to grant a one-time waiver on the bar against making judges returning officers had been taken by the National Judicial Policy Making Committee, headed by the chief justice of Pakistan and consisting of the chief justices of all four high courts.

The commission also noted that various political parties, including the PTI, had demanded that polls be held with district and sessions judges as returning officers.

The commission also discussed the proposed bill on delimitation, forwarded by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to the federal cabinet. The commission, which received a copy of the proposed bill, agreed with the draft in principle, but observed that there was a need to amend Section 222 of the Constitution and the fourth schedule to also include delimitation for local government elections.

The commission said that a fresh census was essential for “realistic delimitation”, maintaining that demographics had changed much since the last census in 1998. The commission was of the view that delimitation without a census would be an exercise in futility. It was also decided that the ECP would write to the government and urge it to expedite the census process.

The commission also decided to write to the provincial governments to complete their legislation on local government systems. On March 19, the provinces were given five months by the Supreme Court to discharge their legislative responsibilities and draw up local government bills. The five months expired on August 18.

The ECP also discussed the possible introduction of a biometric voting system in the upcoming local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ECP will now meet Nadra and KP government representatives to discuss the issue.

Published in Dawn, September 18th , 2014