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Thursday March 28, 2024

Imran’s three confusions are part of London Plan

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan continues to insist that the Judicial Commission must have investigated further without exactly mentioning what needed to be probed; he remained unable to come out of the three basic confusions of missing form-XV, printing of extra ballot papers and the role of ROs and still maintains that

By our correspondents
July 27, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan continues to insist that the Judicial Commission must have investigated further without exactly mentioning what needed to be probed; he remained unable to come out of the three basic confusions of missing form-XV, printing of extra ballot papers and the role of ROs and still maintains that the commission must have decided on basis of circumstantial evidence.
Very few know that the General Election 2013 Inquiry Commission had declared that it will proceed even by accepting second level of evidence i.e. it was not must for the PTI or other political parties to produce “evidences beyond any reasonable doubt”.
The Commission was ready to decide on the basis of “balance of probabilities”, which is second level of evidence but the PTI insisted during the proceedings that the Commission must decide merely on the basis of circumstantial evidences which mostly were statements of its politicians and ‘opinion’ of two of its anchorpersons.
It is a different story that once out of Supreme Court after hearing of Inquiry Commission, the PTI chief and PTI leaders used to make tall claims and different statements to misguide their followers, mostly youth, but before commission they would always pray to accept circumstantial evidence.
As the term ‘balance of probabilities’ is not commonly known so the PTI senior leader Jahangir Tareen is trying to create confusion among the PTI workers by stating that the Commission used the ‘doctrine of necessity’ while deciding the 3 ToRs and that it was clear in para 534 of the Commission Report.
Para 534 simply declares that the Commission would not adopt a standard of proof lower than the ‘balance of probabilities’ given the consequences and extreme importance of the issue.
Tareen, in his attempt to confuse the people, is not telling the people the meaning of ‘balance of probabilities’ which is in fact second degree of evidence and showing that commission was ready to accept even ordinary evidences and was not insisting on ‘evidences beyond any reasonable doubt’.
Tareen even did not repeat in these talk shows that the PTI stance before the Commission was to accept the circumstantial evidences comprising statements and talk shows. Basically, the PTI leaders confide in their close circles that the basic objective of the party was setting up of commission, becoming part of its proceedings and pass time so to avoid embarrassment it was to face at hands of common people following failed D-Chowk sit-ins which were staged in compliance of London Plan.
According to influential sources in political circles and government, basically three confusions of PTI chief and their repeated mention before national media was also part of the script of same London Plan scripted by script writers who are now known to all and sundry. However, Imran Khan had many a time denied presence of any London Plan.
It’s important that the PTI stance before the inquiry commission always remained different from what its chief and other leaders shared with PTI workers and youth. Outside it was Urdu Bazaar ballot papers, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Justice Ramday cell, MI Brigadier, Geo and Jang Group, COAS General Kayani, ECP members etc.
All these important allegations were withdrawn by the PTI when it appeared before the Commission. But once inside the Supreme Court building and before the three-member commission, it always insisted that the Commission should accept circumstantial evidence and even ask for evidences to the standard of second level, i.e. ‘balance of probabilities’/‘preponderance of evidence’; which in effect means it is more likely than not. Commission has mentioned this specific insistence of PTI in its report in para 526.
It is clear from the proceedings of the Commission and arguments made by the legal team headed by Abdul Hafeez Pirzada that the PTI wanted a decision on the basis of inspection of polling bags, which according to it, were opened in some cases without realizing how a decision on fairness of elections can be given merely on the basis of opened bags when there is no specific complaint of large scale rigging on polling or even afterwards with clear description as to how any rigging took place or rigging plan was executed. If this principle is accepted, anyone will demand undoing of whole election process and sacking of the democratically elected government merely by managing to open or tamper some of the polling bags months after election even if there was no compliant of rigging on election-day and overall process of casting of votes and counting was fair and transparent.
It is clear that in a country like Pakistan some of the polling bags could have been opened by any force desiring to destabilize or topple the government for its interests or objectives. Now the PTI chief is complaining that the commission, comprising three judges of Supreme Court entrusted by Imran Khan himself many times, had not done complete investigations and had not ordered inspection of polling bags.
This has also vindicated the Election Commission and the federal government which never paid heed to Imran’s demand for opening of polling bags for four constituencies clearly because his ‘complaint/demand’ and ‘case’ was very week and undoable and unacceptable.
On the one hand, neither the ECP nor the federal government had the legal or constitutional powers to open the polling bags, on the other hand the PTI demand was irrational.
One can complain by clearly mentioning as to what rigging or illegality took place, what rigging pattern was adopted and at what places (constituencies of polling stations) by giving some evidence which can be substantiated by examination or investigations of polling material present in the polling bags. But the simple demand of opening of bags is irrational in absence of any complaint of any instance made on or immediately after the polling day.
Almost all complaints made by the PTI were an after-thought and were made at the time of filling of petitions with the election tribunal in cases of few constituencies. This fact has been recorded in judgments of election tribunals.
The demand for opening of polling bags was clearly based on a revelation on the PTI leadership of a basic and commonly known thing that whenever polling bags are examined, some of them are found opened and in some the record is missing. Recent NA-125 has elaborated reasons behind this opening of bags etc.
This judgment explained that mostly these bags are made of low quality material, are of small size and the polling material is packed by tired staff overloaded with huge work burden and they put material in these bags when they have been working continuously for more than 18 hours (Starting from 5 am in the morning). Almost every knows this but the PTI decided to make this a basis to prove ‘rigging’ while there was no complaint whatsoever from the polling day.
Polling process including casting of votes and counting was smooth on polling day and completed in presence of polling agents of all political parties without any complaint from any side. The polling agents also duly signed the count papers. Under such arrangements how can physical condition of polling bags could have any impacts on elections results after passing of many months. But this is a good mantra to befool youth for vested interests.
The following are three confusions of PTI chief, PTI stance on them, what PTI stated before commission, what PTI told its followers and what were facts and view of the commission;
Confusion-1 (Missing form-XV): Form-XV is statement of ballot paper count. Initially, the PTI chief is unable to understand that if there was any misuse of ballot papers, there must be a complaint from at least one single place from across the country on this count.
There is none. Yes, one allegation of Imran Khan on this count was very relevant and could have been very strong and that was of printing of ballot papers from Urdu Bazaar Lahore. However, without telling or informing the PTI youth and workers, Imran withdrew this allegation before the Commission, as it was basically a white lie. If the PTI chief had remained stuck to this allegation, the Commission would have ordered inspection of record and during forensic examination finding out of even a single such ballot paper printed in Urdu Bazaar could have cast doubts on the transparency of elections. But, the PTI simply backed out from this very important relevant allegation. Now when the Commission repeatedly asked the political parties to make allegations in line with the ToRs and provide evidences in compliance of these ToRs, the PTI came with an irrelevant demand of checking of form-XV from across the country.
The commission accepted this demand and it was found that these forms were missing in many cases. The question however was whether the missing of form-XV (statement of used, unused, wasted etc ballot papers) constitutes any instance of rigging if complete record of used, unused and wasted ballot papers is present and there is no discrepancy? Simple checking of form-XV has no meaning whatsoever if the entire record of ballot papers was not only present but was also OK and most importantly there was no complaint of misuse of ballot papers or use of fake ballot papers on the polling day. Not only this, the PTI has also backtracked from its allegation of printing of fake ballot papers from Urdu Bazaar Lahore.
As explained above, it was clear to all legal minds, including those from the PTI, during the proceedings of the Commission that in the absence of any complaint on the polling day, missing of form-XV or any other record or opened polling bags had no importance, as it can become a bad precedent and attempts will be made in future to manage to disappear some of the polling record, like form-XV or form-XIV and then demand sacking of the government though the election process was fine.
Forms-XIV and XV are given to polling agents of all political parties at all polling stations. A party that doesn’t even have polling agents at all polling stations could not complain. If form-XV is missing, the PTI chief should come up with the form-XV present in the party record and point out exact places where any discrepancy occurred. Imran really needs to come out of this confusion as it’s simple.
Confusion-2 (Printing of extra ballot papers): Printing of extra ballot papers in extraordinary numbers was found in less than 10 constituencies won by different parties. Commission has rejected this allegation by discussing it in detail. It is evident from above facts that PTI itself withdrew its allegation of printing of fake ballot papers from Urdu Bazaar Lahore. Also to prove rigging, one has to show misuse of extra printed ballot papers which was not found in any case. It is crucially important to mention that there was not even a single specific complaint by PTI on this count of misuse of ballot papers what to talk of finding out of any instance of such misuse. In this situation how printing of extra ballot papers could lead to rigging when unused ballot papers are still present and getting extra ballot papers printed has been a routine. It’s relatively easier to come out of this confusion for the PTI chief as PTI has changed its stance on it when it was appearing before commission.
Confusion-3 (Role of ROs): PPP chief Asif Ali Zardari while making a political statement in his usual style has termed 2013 polls the ‘ROs’ elections’.
This statement was ‘necessary’ for him, as his was a major political party which was almost wiped out in most parts of the country. Script writers also forwarded this idea to the PTI chief. Without understanding electoral system, process of casting of votes and then counting of votes and remaining unused ballot papers at different polling stations in presence of polling agents of all political parties, the PTI chief started making allegations that ROs rigged the elections as the then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had ordered them to do so and that retired apex court judge Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday was also instructing ROs to do rigging.
The PTI chief still has time to understand the role of ROs. He needs to understand the meaning and the process of consolidation of results by ROs. As a matter of fact, the ROs have no role in the casting and counting of votes which is done in the presence of polling agents of all political parties.
The ROs cannot influence these two processes in any way whatsoever. At the conclusion of counting of votes at polling stations, the result is announced at polling stations as well as by the media and political parties and media outlets consolidate result at their own. After completion of this process and after handing over form-XIV and form-XV to polling agents, the presiding officer has to go to the office of RO and submit polling material where the RO usually after passing of one day conducts consolidation of result which is a simple formality as the result is already tabulated, consolidated and announced. It can have importance only when the result announced at polling station consolidated by political parties and media at their own is different from the result consolidated by the ROs. There was not a single such case. To the shock of its followers and youth, the PTI that continued to sling mud at the ROs on count of consolidating of results by them, couldn’t come up even with a single example where any the ROs did wrong consolidation of result.
To date, after leveling allegations against the ROs thousands of times, Imran Khan has not come up with a single specific complaint against any RO regarding wrong consolidating of result. It was the simplest confusion.