None of sevenshocking charges raised before commission

ISLAMABAD: As the inquiry commission, which intensely looked into the charges of deliberate systematic manipulation in the 2013 general elections, wrapped up its hearings, there was not even a passing mention in its proceedings of seven shocking accusations that were hammered away for months elsewhere.
While winding up its inquiry the commission did not spell out a timeframe for submission of its report, which will be a public document, to the federal government.
The three-judge panel conducted its proceedings in a very smooth and graceful manner without allowing even a minor controversy to crop up. The hearings did not experience even a single tense moment. Courts and judicial forums seized with matters of high political stakes at times witness unseemly interludes because of unnecessary interventions of some aggressive parties, which generally have a weak case. But everyone expressed full faith in the present commission till the last and there was no complaint against the forum.
The expansive list of poll riggers that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had kept presenting to the people at large during its protest campaign became trimmed before the commission as it began proceedings.
There was not even cursory allusion of the top ‘election manipulators’ who were slandered and slurred for umpteen times over a year in an unprecedented manner, and other elements that were slammed in the same way.
Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, retired Supreme Court judge Khalilur Rehman Ramday and Jang Group were not even referred to in the 39 hearings that the commission held. Similarly, there was no mention of the MI brigadier; ‘35 punctures’; Nawaz Sharif’s speech at 11.23 pm on the polling day and ‘fraudulent’ printing of ballot papers from the Urdu Bazaar Lahore.
These allegations were consciously sidestepped for the reason that they had been hurled just as a propaganda tool without realising the political loss that will incur due to the failure to establish them before the commission. They were not talked about during the proceedings because there was not even minor evidence available to prove them.
Four points mainly attracted the PTI’s attention during the hearings although they had not previously topped its list of allegations with the ferocity it showed before the commission. At the end of the day, it based its case on charges of printing of additional ballots, their supply to a dozen Punjab constituencies and two areas of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), missing of Forms 15 and the role of the Returning Officers (ROs).
While PTI lawyer Abdul Hafeez Pirzad fought inside the commission in a professional way to establish that manipulation took place in the polls, Imran Khan announced his own ruling every day after the panel’s hearing and always said he has proved the rigging. He was the only senior politician who hardly missed any sitting of the commission.
At least 19 political parties out a total of 21, which were part of the hearings, made no contribution whatsoever to the proceedings and did not put even a single question to the witnesses. The PTI remained most active, was prepared and focused compared to all others. The main onus of presenting evidence also lied on its shoulders. However, it was also unable to produce any startling proof that would have taken the commission and others by surprise.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) posed some queries to the witnesses but not as vigorously as the PTI. Its participation in the process of cross-examinations of witnesses was limited and lukewarm.
Imran Khan hoped and expected that the commission would invoke a clause of the presidential ordinance, which created the panel to involve the premier military intelligence agencies in the probe into alleged rigging, but in vain as the forum did not deem it fit. Thus, section 6(2), inserted in the ordinance on the stubborn insistence of the PTI with a motive, turned out to be futile.
The provision says the commission shall have the power to form one or more special investigation teams consisting of officers from the relevant executive authorities including but not limited to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Directorate for Military Intelligence (MI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for the purpose of assisting it in its inquiry.
PML-N lawyer Shahid Hamid gave instructive statistics to the commission. According to him, out of a total of 272 National Assembly seats, the results of 135 were never challenged before any judicial forum, and out of the 137 that were contested before election tribunals, 112 of the petitions were dismissed, 15 were allowed and 10 were still pending. Of the 127 cases that were disposed, 20 were appealed before the Supreme Court, of which six cases had been decided and 14 were still pending. Thus, 90 per cent of the results stood confirmed.
Similarly, out of a total of 577 seats of the four provincial assemblies, elections to 307 seats were never challenged. Of the 270 results that were challenged, 216 cases were dismissed, 36 allowed and 17 were still pending. The Supreme Court has decided 28 appeals and is still seized with 49 cases, meaning that the results of 523 of the 577 seats now stood confirmed.
Not only the Nawaz Sharif administration but the provincial governments will also go if it was proved in the commission’s report that the 2013 elections were not organised or conducted impartially, honestly, fairly, justly and in accordance with law; the polls were manipulated or influenced pursuant to a systematic effort by design by anyone; and the results on an overall basis are not a true and fair reflection of the mandate given by the electorate.