ISLAMABAD: All three returning officers (ROs) informed the poll inquiry commission on Thursday that the ballot papers printed in excess (10 per cent) of the registered number of voters in their constituencies were never distributed; they were retained and subsequently deposited in the treasury after the close of the 2013 general elections.

The ROs who appeared before the commission for cross-examination included Munawer Khan of NA-21 Mansehra-II, Sajjad Hussain of NA-119 Lahore-II and Khalid Mehmood Bhatti of NA-125 Lahore-VIII.

The commission allowed the MQM’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Dr Farooq Sattar to reply on Friday to allegations levelled by the witnesses produced by MQM-Haqiqi and Jamaat-i-Islami. It issued notices to Hashmat Habib and Abdur Rehman Siddiqui, the counsel representing MQM-Haqiqi and JI respectively.

Returning officer Sajjad Hussain, who conducted the elections in NA-119 from where Hamza Shahbaz Sharif had won, told the commission that he had determined the number of ballot papers to be printed for the NA constituency and two associated provincial assembly constituencies after finalising the polling scheme.

He said he also had decided to appoint presiding officers for 282 polling stations in the NA-119 constituency and informed the provincial election commission (PEC) about it.

The registered number of voters in the constituency was 305,570, but 368,000 ballot papers were printed. A total of 1,818 votes were rejected. Hamza Shahbaz secured 107,735 votes and his rival, a PTI candidate, 40,821.

Sajjad Hussain said he had neither received any action plan prepared by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) nor any instructions from district election commissioner (DEC) Shabbar Abbas Bokhari about the preparation for requirement of ballot papers. The number of ballot papers was determined by rounding off the number of votes in each of the required 632 polling booths.

He said he had kept with him 64,000 ballot papers which were never distributed among the presiding officers. These were later deposited in 15 sealed boxes, which also contained 3,800 loose ballots, through the DRO after recording their serial number.

He claimed that he had not received any complaint from any presiding office about the shortage of ballot papers.

Mr Hussain said he had received all Form-14 which were in tamper evident bags as well as Form-15 delivered to him separately by hand after the polling.

He produced Form-15 before the commission.

Khalid Mehmood Bhatti, who conducted the elections in NA-125 from where Khawaja Saad Rafique had won with 123,416 votes, said he had determined the number of ballot papers at 500,000 against the registered number of votes of 429,115. But he said he had received 550,000 ballot papers and had no idea who increased the number of papers.

He said he had retained with him 128,000 ballot papers after distributing the rest among presiding officers and later deposited them in the treasury. He said he had done the bulk breaking of ballot papers on May 9 and 10 because he received the ballots in two consignments – 200,000 on May 9 and the remaining 350,000 on May 10.

Mr Bhatti said he had no idea how many ballot papers were utilised in NA-125 and could not say whether 226,360 ballots were used. He said he had not received some of the Form-15 because a few presiding officers had put these in the election bags. At the time of consolidation of elections results, he added, he had not kept in view the Form-15, though the elections were consolidated on the basis of Form-14.

Mr Bhatti said he had also testified before an election tribunal and admitted that CCTV cameras had been installed in the courtroom of the district and sessions judges where the election exercise was done as well as in corridors.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2015

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