Daily Times

The challenge that the Judicial Commission (JC) faced during its first day’s hearing was the lack of preparedness of the political parties who failed to produce any concrete evidence of alleged rigging in the general elections 2013. Even the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), which has been trumpeting the claims of rigging in the polls for the last one and a half years, failed to come up with any proof before the commission. The PTI has surprisingly sought 10 days to collect and produce the evidence that should have been finalised much earlier. Besides the PTI, other political parties also did not produce any convincing evidence rather there were complaints of general anomalies and the negligence of returning officers at the individual constituency level. All political parties should be aware that the JC has been given only 45 days to decide this most important case. On its part, the JC has given seven days time to the PTI and other parties to produce evidence as well as the Election Commission of Pakistan to send its report on the validity of the elections, while three days have been given to the National Database Regulatory Authority to produce forensic reports of 37 constituencies. The JC is dealing with a tough task because after the collection of evidence, it needs time to scrutinise all the material and come to a conclusion. If the political parties continue with their slow pace, the purpose of the formation of the commission will die a natural death. PPP’s counsel Latif Khosa raised a valid query regarding the fate of cases pending with the election tribunals. Khalid Ranjha, the counsel for PML-Q, has accused the returning officers of making the elections controversial. These accusations are based on a common perception that the returning officers were either dishonest or plain incompetent. However, the allegations have not been proved that they were acting under the instructions of someone.
So far, the political parties, especially the main accuser PTI, have presented generalised complaints and statements that could not prove that organised and systematic rigging took place. Obviously the JC is dealing with a difficult task and all the political parties should cooperate with it so that the case could be decided justly and within the stipulated time. Unnecessary delay can cause more harm than good. Last but not least, both the PML-N and PTI must be ready to accept the verdict of the commission whether it goes in favour of one or the other party. *