ISLAMABAD: Former Punjab election commissioner Mehboob Anwar conceded before the judicial commission on Friday that the ban on political activities imposed 48 hours before polling day remained in effect until the election process, which includes the consolidation of results by returning officers (ROs), was completed.

But when asked whether he saw Nawaz Sharif’s speech, made in the evening on the polling day ahead of the announcement of official results, the provincial election commissioner said he did not watch the speech live, though he saw it later.

He was cross-examined for a second consecutive day by senior counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, who is representing the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), and later by Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, who represents the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Election commission yet to comment on veracity of documents submitted by PTI

However, the three-judge inquiry commission, headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, did not allow Mr Pirzada to ask Mr Anwar whether the prime minister announced his victory in that speech.

As usual, PTI chief Imran Khan and Secretary General Jehangir Tareen quietly watched inquiry proceedings and repeatedly consulted their counsel throughout the day.

Mr Pirzada told the commission that he would not pursue the matter of the PM’s speech further but would move an application to call Mr Anwar for cross-examination again after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) owned or denied documents retrieved through the official ECP website.

The commission also summoned five more witnesses to record their evidence on Monday. These included the managing directors of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad; Muzzafar Ali Chandio, M. Rafiq and Masood Raza Afandi, respectively, as well as Postal Foundation Islamabad Director Ijaz Ahmed Minhas and the managing director of the Pakistan Security Printing Corporation (PSPC).

On Friday, Mr Pirzada complained that he had been waiting for three days for the ECP to reply on documents the PTI had submitted as evidence before the commission.

But Salman Akram Raja, appearing on behalf of the ECP, said he already had informed Mr Pirzada that these 580 documents in 76 volumes were not available with the ECP.

The commission asked Mr Pirzada to provide a list of documents, which Mr Raja and the ECP officials would either own or disown, to the office of Inquiry Commission Secretary Muhammad Hamid Ali on Monday, in the presence of K.K. Agha, who is assisting the commission.

Mr Raja also described Mr Anwar as a unique witness, who was with the ECP since 1976 and had been part of nine general elections.

During cross-examination, when Mr Pirzada showed a document to Mr Anwar suggesting that extra ballot papers be prepared for NA-198 and asked whether this document came from the ECP, Shahid Hamid representing the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) objected and said the documents were not signed.

At this, the witness said that he had not seen the document being exhibited before, and reiterated that it was neither signed nor bore any markings to suggest it originated from the ECP.

This prompted Mr Pirzada to complain that this was what happened when the other side explained what he was objecting to. “The other side has the right to object, but then he must approach the bench so that the witness cannot hear,” he said.

The chief justice then said that it was for the witness to say he had seen the document or not.

Mr Anwar also told the commission that he did make a phone call to then-Additional Chief Secretary Punjab Rao Iftikhar on May 7, 2013 and not on May 9, to request for the provision of 100 to 200 persons for the purpose of numbering and binding ballot papers in book form. The ballot papers were with the printing press in Islamabad but the persons were hired from Lahore, he said, adding that he did not know the total number of ballot papers printed.

He admitted that the request was for the persons who were conversant with binding and numbering of ballot papers, but denied that he ever asked for the persons from Lahore’s Urdu Bazaar. He said that around 78 people were collected from Lahore on the night between May 7 and 8 and they worked until May 9.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2015

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