PML-N, PTI trade blame over judicial commission

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have blamed each other for backtracking from commitments and pursuing politically motivated agenda to avoid formation of a judicial commission to probe allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections.
PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal accused the PTI leadership of floating those three demands that led the dialogue process towards failure but PTI’s Asad Umer and Dr. Shireen Mazari dismissed this impression.
Talking to The News minister for planning and development Ahsan Iqbal told this correspondent that PTI wants them to accept its three demands for formation of the judicial commission that they cannot do due to legal and constitutional hurdles.
He said PTI demands dissolution of the provincial assemblies if rigging is proved by the judicial commission. “PTI also insists that the judicial commission should override all laws - that means the decisions made by the election tribunals would become subject to revision. It also says that we should also accept irregularities as rigging in the draft ordinance,” he said.
Ahsan Iqbal said it is up to Pakistan People’s Party and National Party whether they accept to dissolve their respective provincial governments if rigging is proved by the judicial commission. He said the PTI leaders level allegations during their media talks and in public speeches but when they come to the table they talk about different things.
“When we tell the PTI leaders to include all their allegations that they have levelled publicly in Terms of Reference (TORs) for the judicial commission they refuse to do so and insist to focus on only those points that they think would suit their political agenda,” he said.
He said the government is ready to constitute the judicial commission but PTI must agree to include all its allegations such as organised rigging in the 2013 elections because what they have said publicly should be probed in detail by a neutral body.
When contacted, PTI leader Asad Umer told The News that they have never ever talked about dissolution of provincial assemblies of Sindh or Balochistan in case rigging is proved. “If the judicial commission says that the elections were rigged then there would be no legal or moral ground for the provincial assemblies to continue but still we have not made any such demand in mutual talks,” he said.
To a question, he said the judicial commission would be an investigative body and it would not override other existing laws and the proceedings or decisions of the election tribunals would not be affected by it.
Replying to another question, he said it is also wrong to say that PTI wants the judicial commission to bracket irregularities as rigging because they are quite clear on this issue and members of the government team also agreed with their viewpoint in the past. He said, “Both the government and PTI said that Asad Umer and Ahsan Iqbal should present joint recommendations and when we prepared and presented them the government backtracked from its earlier point of view.”
PTI secretary information Dr. Shireen Mazari told The News that when most of the things including draft of the ordinance had been settled down and basic differences resolved then it appeared that the government was not serious in forming the judicial commission.
“Now it appears that either the government is not serious or it is confused over constitution of the judicial commission. If the government has any will then the judicial commission can be formed immediately as most of the things have already been resolved in this respect,” she said.