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Friday March 29, 2024

PTI tribunal issues fresh notice to Tareen

Terms core committee ‘so-called’

By our correspondents
April 30, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed-led PTI tribunal has issued a fresh show cause notice to Jehangir Tareen while terming the party’s core committee “so-called” and noting that all the power stand vested in Chairman Imran Khan who should rivet attention on the question whether except for lip service, any part of any of the decisions of the tribunal actually was acted upon, let alone implemented.
In his latest order circulated on Wednesday, the Wajih-led tribunal also related the PTI defeat in NA-246 and the cantonments with non-implementation of the tribunal’s decisions. The tribunal warned that the party may also face a similar fate in the upcoming local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The PTI documents show the tribunal saying, “Because the same office bearers (who were removed by the tribunal) hold the field, across Pakistan and, in defiance of the Tribunal, no caretakers have been appointed, PTI has suffered serious electoral debacles, first in NA-246 and then in the cantonments, besides being well poised to suffer similar fate in the forthcoming local government polls in KPK.” The tribunal suggested to Imran Khan to establish an independent and neutral mechanism to enquire into and report on the immediate past local electoral process.
The “Diary Sheet” of the tribunal reveals that on 27th April, the tribunal took up the complaints against Jehangir Tareen and others. “There were two facets of Mr. Rafi Khan’s complaint (against Tarin and others). One, a sum of Rs 500,000 per instructions of Mr. Jehangir Khan Tarin was sent to Ms.Mariam Batool which Mr. Jehangir Khan in spite of reminders has allegedly not refunded. Bank account of Ms.Batool was required to be produced to confirm whether such sum stood credited there. Neither Ms.Batool has appeared nor the bank statement has been submitted. It therefore stands established that the said sum must have been paid as claimed.”
It added, “The second aspect of Mr. Rafi Khan’s complaint is the alleged sale and purchase of votes by Mr. Jehangir Khan Tarin & Mr. Aleem Khan to get Mr. Pervaiz Khattak elected the party Secretary General. On this question also Mr. Rafi Khan’s version has remained ur-rebutted.”
Since the previous notices of the tribunal were not answered, the tribunal issued fresh seven-day notice to Jehangir Khan Tareen and others requiring them to explain as to why they may not be expelled from the party for misconduct.After dealing with Tareen’s case, the tribunal referred to its past orders dealing with the controversies including the chairman’s notification dissolving the tribunal.
Regarding the implementation of tribunal’s orders, the “Diary Sheet” said, “The last Order that the Tribunal recorded was on 25-4-2015. Through such Order the Tribunal had re-iterated its earlier decision, reflected in the Diary Sheet dated 19-4-2015 (dispatched 20-4-2015). To be precise the Tribunal said: ‘In short, the Tribunal finds itself to be very much alive and functional. Indeed, if anything, it has been acting in the larger party interest and attempting to cleanse it from within so as to be better equipped to deliver externally at the national level. Pursuant to its mandate, the Tribunal would continue to function in the larger party interest.’ Correspondingly, the Tribunal recorded: ‘To conclude, the long and short of the matter is that this Tribunal would meet, as already scheduled on the 27th instant at 3:00pm, same place (Gabol House). There would be business as usual.’”
Referring to its October 17, 2014 order, the tribunal said, “To recapitulate, the Tribunal had earlier, while deciding the 76 Intra Party Election (IPE) petitions, had found the party elections, completed in March 2013, to be flawed. Instead of setting aside large chunks of elections and generating further controversies, the Tribunal invoking the Noorani Commission Report and the proposed Reviewed Version of the PTI Constitution, on a one-off basis, opted to curtail the tenures of party offices to two years. Ordering this on 17-10-2014, the Tribunal opined that such tenures would run out on 18-3-2015 by which date fresh elections were to be held and duly elected office bearers were to be in place. All and sundry in the party accepted the Tribunal’s decision and Chairman Imran khan, went a-top the Azadi Bus and proclaimed implementation of the Tribunal’s order dated 17-10-2014.”
Referring to its order dated March 18, 2015, the tribunal said, “Regrettably, nothing moved till the arrival of 18-3-2015, the deadline fixed by the Tribunal. On such date, the Tribunal took notice of the situation, passing the due follow-up order of implementation bearing the same date. The Tribunal declared all bodies in the party inclusive of office bearers to have been dissolved except the Founder Chairman of the party, the Standing Committee on Accountability and Discipline (SCAD), the Party Wings and, of course, the Tribunal itself, to whom the follow-up compliances were to be reported. According to such order dated 18-3-2015, the fresh Intra Party Elections (IPE) were to be held within 3 months, with the party voters list to have been completed within a month. The Founder Chairman of the party (IK) was conferred absolute powers to appoint the Caretakers and the Party Election Commission, with a rider that none of them would to competent to contest the fresh Intra Party Elections to follow. SCAD was authorized to independently pursue all disciplinary matters.”
Then the tribunal while referring to the PTI’s core committee meeting of 22nd March, 2015, lamented, “Instead of unreservedly accepting the Tribunal’s implementation order dated 18-3-2015 the matter was taken to the Core Committee (CC) in its meeting held on 22-3-2015. This even though, according to the Tribunal’s two aforesaid orders, all PTI bodies including the CC stood dissolved. There was also an obvious conflict of interest inasmuch as a dissolved body could not preside on a follow-up of its own dissolution.”
The tribunal added, “The Chairman in his opening remarks (in the CC meeting) said that we want PTI to turn into an institution and these kinds of decisions are important. It is a sign of democracy.” The CC discussed in length the Election tribunal decision by Justice Wajihuddin. Different views were expressed which are summarized below.
The document also shows tribunal to have noted that other than the chairman, there were also weighty opinions appreciating and upholding the tribunal’s verdict but such opinions conveniently found no mention in the minutes of the meeting.
Referring to the March 22, 2015 decisions of the core committee, the tribunal said, “The so called Core Committee, as per the same minutes, decided as below: ‘However, it was decided that now the tribunal’s decision has been made public the Party should accept the Decision and the following procedure be adopted. All Party officeholders/positions are forthwith dissolved. An Election Commissioner for PTI IPE would be appointed in next 48 hours. The new EC will formulate the full Election committee in consultation with the C’man and they will then finalize the modalities of Intra Party Election. The EC will recommend to the Chairman on the time period required for holding intra-party elections after assessing the administrative/constitutional requirements. The Chairman has nominated the dissolved office bearers to their elected offices till the election schedule recommended by the EC.”
“On the matter of Show Cause to the SG (Tarin) the Chairman said that all actions taken by the SG were in accordance to the decisions made by the Chairman. The CC held that the SG was only implementing decisions made by the C’man after consulting with the CC and he cannot be held solely responsible for decisions made collectively. Mr. Hamid Khan told the CC that he will not be part of the new Election committee which is to hold the next Intra Party Elections (IPE).”
From the minutes of the “so-called Core Committee”, the tribunal noted, ”It is obvious, a- The Tribunal’s decision of March 18, 2015, was accepted because the same had been made public ——. b- While all party office holders/positions were to stand ‘forthwith dissolved’, in the same breath, such dissolved office bearers were to stand nominated to their respective elected offices ‘till the election schedule recommended by the EC.’ Thus there was, and continues to be, no effective dissolution. c- While the Election Commissioner has been appointed no Election Committee has, so far, been formed. d- While the Tribunal had meticulously determined the time schedule for the PTI IPE, after the interlude from 17-10-2014 to 18-3-2015 had been allowed to lapse, such parameters of time were given a good bye because, as per above, the EC was to ‘recommend to the Chairman on the time period required to holding Intra Party Elections after assessing the administrative/constitutional requirements.’ e- As of now, out of the three months’ period for holding the IPE, the one month for finalizing the voters lists has already passed. The Election Commission itself has not yet been formed what to say of providing the time-frame for the election, even though such time-frame would have had the potential to circumvent the orders of the Tribunal.”
Following these observations, the tribunal lamented, “The one disturbing question which emerges from the foregoing is whether, except for lip service, any part of any of the decisions of the Tribunal been actually acted upon, let alone implemented? Because all powers stand vested in the Chairman, he needs to rivet attention on this question.”
It added, “Because the same office bearers hold the field, across Pakistan and, in defiance of the Tribunal, no Caretakers have been appointed, PTI has suffered serious electoral debacles, first in NA-246 and then in the cantonments, besides being well poised to suffer similar fate in the forthcoming local government polls in KPK. The Chairman may, perhaps, establish an independent and neutral mechanism to enquire into and report on the immediate past local electoral process and that shortly to follow.”As per the tribunal’s decision, it would meet again at 4pm on Monday, May 4, 2015 at Gabol House in Karachi.