ISLAMABAD: With the judicial commission’s next hearing looming, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is counting on the fact that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will buckle under pressure and spill the beans before the commission, proving the party’s claims that the 2013 general elections were rigged.

“Things are different now and I hope the ECP, the main culprit behind the rigging, will spill the beans before the commission,” Ishaq Khakwani, the head of the PTI’s task force set up by party chief Imran Khan, told Dawn.

Headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, the commission will resume hearings on April 23.

Ishaq Khakwani says party will submit all evidence by April 22

The ECP, which has been asked by the commission to submit a rejoinder on allegations levelled by the parties, will have to come up with solid reasons why ballot papers were printed by private printers, as well as answer questions about the purchase of faulty magnetised ink and justify how they failed or deliberately refrained from controlling the returning officers (ROs) appointed to conduct the elections.

The ECP will also have to explain why a large number of polling stations were changed overnight, which caused inconvenience to voters who had to run from pillar to post to cast their vote, Mr Khakwani said. He added that district returning officers (DROs), in consultation with the ECP, had to notify the polling scheme at least a fortnight in advance.

Instead, voters had to go from one polling station to another in search of their vote, Mr Khakwani deplored, adding he had complete statistics on the `electoral mess’.

“What was the need to change polling stations at the eleventh hour and who proposed the change of the polling stations,” Mr Khakwani asked, adding that `corrupt’ ECP officials needed to be exposed so that future elections could be conducted in a fair manner.

He was confident that PTI would submit the necessary incriminating evidence and other material in support of the proposals they have already given, on April 22, a day before the next hearing.

An announcement from the judicial commission has meanwhile stated that its secretariat will receive documents, evidence or material furnished by any political party or individual during the office hours i.e. from Monday to Thursday and Saturday until 3:30pm and until 12 noon on Friday.

Interested parties have been asked to ensure compliance with regard to the time for the smooth functioning of the commission.

“Why wait for April 23, we will submit the documents a day before especially when we know that supplementary material can be submitted at any stage,” Mr Khakwani said, adding that the PTI would be submitting one-page summary for each case.

Asked why the PTI did not submit evidence on the first date of hearing, Mr Khakwani explained that most of the paperwork necessary to establish allegations of rigging was complete, but the party was waiting on material from remote areas such as Balochistan.

“There are always a few shortcomings and we needed more time getting people to wake up who had lost all hope,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sardar Latif Khosa, a leader of People’s Party, has pleaded before the commission that PPP would provide documentary evidence to establish that the elections were not impartial, fair, honest, rather manipulated and influenced on an overall basis.

He drew the commission’s attention to the PPP’s white paper entitled ‘Robbing an Election’, on the elections held in NA-124 Lahore, which elaborately takes the covers off the conspiracy and documents cogent evidence of how the presiding officers were directed not to provide or resist the demand to provide certified results to the polling agents. Moreover, the ROs removed and destroyed vital polling material, he alleged.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

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