Third wicket?

A hat-trick, a third wicket – this is how the headlines – and PTI supporters of course – have described the election tribunal verdict declaring the election in NA-154 Lodhran to be null and void. The tribunal canceled the election based on the determination that the academic degree for independent candidate, Siddique Baloch, who later joined the PML-N was fake. Baloch had won the seat in the 2013 general elections against PTI candidate Jehangir Khan Tareen. Tareen had rejected the result and filed an application with the ECP for a re-count, which upheld the election in favour of the winning candidate. Later, Tareen approached an election tribunal, challenging the academic degree of the now de-seated lawmaker. Earlier, the PTI had rejoiced after an election tribunal declared the NA-122 and NA-125 elections to be void based on electoral irregularities. While the PTI has continued to claim the verdicts as victories, the original PTI claim of systematic rigging in the 2013 general elections still appears to have no grounds. The NA-154 verdict once again raises more questions about the ECP than it does about any sinister plan by the PML-N to rig the election. The question to ask here is simple: why did the ECP not verify the academic qualifications of Siddique Baloch before he was allowed to contest the election?
Surely this is a serious issue in the process of vetting candidates and the ball lies squarely with the ECP. The ECP and PTI tension has already gotten more serious in the last few days. On Tuesday the ECP issued a statement claiming that no political party had any right to ask it to explain anything it does since it was a constitutional entity. Surely, this position is not maintainable, since political parties are exactly the type of social force that the ECP has been set up to facilitate. If they have any questions regarding the election process, the ECP must indeed defend itself or at least attempt to explain itself. The statement was issued in response to the PTI chairman’s letter to the ECP. The ECP has taken the position probably in response to Khan’s single-minded demand that the four members of the ECP must resign or he would lead a sit-in outside the ECP Secretariat. Khan wants the ECP members to be taken to trial for failing to perform their duties as per the Judicial Commission’s opinion regarding the ECP’s mismanagement and incompetence. Khan’s position has been strengthened by the opposition leader in the NA, Khursheed Shah, asking the ECP members to resign with dignity due to the challenge to their credibility. In another example of negative tactics, the PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah has accused the judge who wrote the NA-122 verdict of having asked the PML-N to give his son a seat to contest the 2013 election. Such tactics go nowhere. It is instead the PML-N’s decision late on Wednesday to withdraw its appeals against the NA-122, NA-125 and NA-154 verdicts and decision to re-contest all three seats that deserves praise. If the party sticks by the decision, it ends the needless animosity building around the issue. There is, however, a larger point to be made. Unless these single verdicts change the overall picture painted regarding the 2013 elections, all the politicking on these verdicts means nothing. It is good that the PML-N has begun to realise that. It would be wise if the PTI followed suit.