PTI bent on prolonging JC proceedings beyond 45 days

LAHORE: Senior analyst Najam Sethi has said no convincing evidence will be presented before the Judicial Commission and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will try to prolong JC proceedings beyond 45 days. Pakistan is not impartial on the Yemen crisis and the Pakistan Army will not like the blockade of sentences given by military courts.
Replying to Muneeb Farooq’s questions in the Geo News programme “Aapas Ki Baat” on Friday, he said that in the first hearing of the Judicial Commission, there was no talk of “systematic rigging”. Political parties were talking about presenting proof against rigging in different constituencies. There were objections to only five per cent National Assembly seats. There was no objection to over 200 NA seats. He said the maximum 72 petitions against the election rigging had been submitted by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The PTI was leading from the front in this context, but it had objected to only 35 NA and 11 provincial Assembly seats. In Punjab, it had raises doubt about 15 NA and PA seats.
Sethi said the PTI had taken one week for Abdul Hafeez Peerzada to prepare his arguments. No acceptable proof would be presented before the Judicial Commission as they didn’t exist. People would only deliver speeches there. The PTI would try to extend the commission’s work beyond 45 days so that it could have a platform to voice its stance. He said the Judicial Commission had asked the Nadra to present a thumb impression report of 41 constituencies, of which six were from Punjab. The Nadra had already said 60pc thumb impressions could not be verified in 24 of these constituencies.
Sethi said there had been nothing new before the election tribunal for the last two years. The PTI would not be able to present any solid proof against rigging despite getting one week. The JC is bound to see proof against the “systematic rigging” in the general elections 2013. There should be no talk about various seats as their cases had already been taken up by election tribunals. The JC would only look into the drawbacks of the election system and their rectification.
Referring to allegations by Imran Khan, he said Imran’s 90 per cent allegations were false. The JC should grill Imran Khan over his allegations. Sethi said he had not written to the JC to call him. “Rather, I requested the commission to call Imran Khan and order him to prove allegations against me,” he said, adding that if there was any solid proof against him, he would answer them. He said Imran Khan leveled the allegation of “35 punctures” against him. He should pinpoint the punctures. Imran was crying about only 16 seats in Punjab, but he himself didn’t know what he was talking about.
Sethi said Javed Hashmi gave very serious statements against Imran, saying that he talked about the former chief justice in the PTI Core Committee meeting. The Judicial Commission should first call Imran Khan and Javed Hashmi and ask them to speak truth. On Yemen, he said Pakistan was not impartial in this conflict. Imran Khan had raised the issue of neutrality in the parliament and it had pinched the PML-N. After the Arab countries objected to the Pakistani parliament’s resolution on Yemen, the prime minister changed his stance and said the ousted Yemen government should be restored as it was legal and the fight by the Houthis was illegitimate. This way, Pakistan adopted a stance on the civil war in Yemen according to the will of Saudi Arabia. He said the Arab countries had done well by getting a resolution passed by the UNSC on Yemen. No nobody could ask Pakistan which side it was on. Pakistan had demonstrated good politics. Shahbaz Sharif visited Saudi Arabia to assure the Saudis that Pakistan was standing by them.
On the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s decision to stop six death sentences awarded by military courts, Sethi said the SC gave the verdict as per the Constitution, but this decision would not leave good political impacts. The army would not like this verdict. This verdict could enhance tension between the army and the judiciary. The SC should immediately resolve this tension.