binding effects on the political parties or not, he said it is true the commission’s recommendations would have no binding effects however there would be pressure on the government to implement it in letter and spirit.
He said this is not difficult to answer these questions as many political parties already have submitted evidence in the election tribunal and the forensic evidence of Nadra and if any pattern emerges from these sets of evidence then these lines should be followed.
Former chief justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui while talking to The News said from the very first day he has argued that this commission would be a futile exercise as all political parties know it very well that they could not prove that this was a systematic rigging.
“No political party has any concrete evidence or credible witnesses who could prove that the May 2013 general elections were rigged in an organised manner. This is nothing but a well carved out plan of two parties to end confrontation by forming a judicial commission. The formation of judicial commission is outside the scope of the Constitution and there is no binding effect of this commission. Hence the only thing which the commission could do is to give its recommendations and it is up to the government and ECP to implement or not,” Justice Siddiqui commented.
He said the political parties have no such concrete evidence, which could prove that there was systematic rigging in the general elections.Advocate Salman Akram Raja while talking to The News said the issuance of questionnaire by the Judicial Commission is a right step to limit itself as per the ToRs of the commission. It is up to the political parties now to answer these questions.
When asked if it would not be a difficult task to submit specific answers of these specific questions as how could one prove the systematic rigging in general elections, Mr. Raja said the legal teams of the political parties must have done their homework on it.