PM risked his office by forming Judicial Commission: Sethi

LAHORE: Imran Khan did not talk about rigging for a year but then a section of establishment had conspired and launched him and Dr Tahirul Qadri, said Najam Sethi on Friday. However, he said, the current military establishment disposed of that group and was not interfering in political matters. Expressing his views in ‘Aapas ki Baat – a Geo News programme hosted by Muneeb Farooq – Sethi said no elections could be declared transparent in Pakistan, adding that it was Asad Umar who first accepted the result from the PTI. All the election observers did mention shortcomings but had not claimed rigging and everyone described the 2013 general elections as most transparent after 1970, Sethi recalled.
According to Sethi, the address by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif address after the Judicial Commission’s report was the right move and he did not try to take political mileage of it. His speech was reflective of mature vision. It was for the first time in Pakistan that a prime minister had risked his office by forming the commission. It is the first Judicial Commission of the country which issued an uncontroversial verdict within the stipulated period.
Sethi said Imran had chosen the right path of introducing better governance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but he was misled by a section of military establishment and those in the PTI seeking a shortcut. He said being the caretaker chief minister of Punjab, he (Sethi) was confident that there had been no rigging though the Election Commission could make mistakes.
According to Sethi, he had complete trust in the commission as depending on lies was impossible before it. Imran could not gather fake proof and therefore failed. He had the same documents which presented before the election tribunals. The entire episode was just a propaganda and drama. The provincial governments and seats of those parties talking about rigging are also illegal. It was necessary to include the Punjab administration in the PTI’s organised rigging allegation to establish an alliance between the Election Commission and the administration. That is why they only focused on him (Sethi).
Imran did not ask the then chief election commissioner, former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Justice (r) Ramday and the Geo management to appear before the commission. They knew that there claim would not move forward by making them eyewitness.
The PTI counsels instead of giving evidence of ‘35 punctures’ presented a video clip of ‘Aapas ki Baat’ but the judges did not accept their argument and also mentioned in the judgment that the PTI wrongly tried to link two statements of Sethi.
Sethi said he and the former chief justice had filed defamation cases against the PTI chairman, adding that Imran and Shahid Masood, just a few days back, filed their repliesAccording to him, Shahid says he does not know anything about the ‘35 punctures’ and he heard about the matter from Imran who on his turn mentions Shahid and Mubasher Lucman as the source. “I will end the matter, if Imran Khan and Shahid Masood tender apology before the court,” said Sethi.
In case, they didn’t, he would try for court verdict against them with a fine, but he would donate the money to Shaukat Khanum Hospital, he remarked.Sethi said he did not need money and honour was his priority. The allegations resulted in character assassination, he said, adding that he was appointed as caretaker CM only due his reputation and with the recommendation of Imran.