Formation of judicial commission to probe 2013 polls challenged

Karachi
The Sindh High Court on Thursday issued notices to the attorney general, secretary law and election commission on a petition against proposed judicial commission to probe alleged rigging in May 2013 elections.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had written a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan in August last year for formation of a three-member judicial commission following agitation campaign by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf against alleged rigging in the 2013 polls.
Petitioner Imtiaz Khan Faran had submitted in his petition that the prime minister in a televised address to the nation on August 12, 2014, announced formation of a judicial commission to probe into the alleged electoral rigging in the May 2013 polls and also wrote a letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice for an in-depth investigation into the allegations and for presenting their findings.
He mentioned that a draft of terms of reference and memorandum of understanding has already been prepared by the government for such a judicial commission.
Faran said that electoral system and the constitutional provisions were blatantly being ignored as the government has also proposed to promulgate an ordinance under Article 89 of the Constitution to form a judicial commission consisting of three Supreme Court judges who will determine whether the 2013 elections were conducted impartially, honestly, fairly and in accordance with the law, or if the results were manipulated or influenced in any way.
He said that proposed formation of the judicial commission was as a result of political exigencies and the same was in order to serve the ‘political necessity’ which amounted to grave abuse of powers by the government.
Petitioner’s counsel Barrister Zameer Ghumro submitted that the Article 225 of the Constitution states that no election to a house or a provincial assembly shall be called in question except by an election petition presented to such tribunal and in such a manner as may be determined by Act of Parliament and the Parliament enacted Representation of People Act, 1976, under which election tribunals were constituted.
He stated that no court, institution or authority except election tribunals can question the elections to the parliament and provincial assemblies as was clearly mandated by the Article 225 and any violation of the Constitution will subvert the constitutional and legal process in the country.
The counsel contended that many election petitions have been decided by the election tribunals and even re-elections have been held in some of the constituencies and establishing a commission over and above the legal process will be outright violation of the Constitution.
He submitted that the situation in the country called for electoral reforms for which a parliamentary committee has been established and political parties could bring electoral reforms through legal and constitutional process in order to make the electoral process foolproof but any other unconstitutional process would be detrimental to the constitutional machinery of the country.
He said that the government has shown ultimate disregard towards constitutional provisions by proposing the establishment of judicial commission and the same will also be violation of the judgments of the Supreme Court that had recently dismissed the petitions filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, whereby elections results of 2013 general elections were challenged by the petitioner on the ground of rigging, holding that such petitions were not maintainable in the view of Article 225 of the Constitution.
He submitted that setting up a commission to look into the electoral disputes of individuals constituencies was not possible in view of Article 225, which envisages that no election can be called into question except by an election petition presented to the election tribunal adding that formation of Judicial Commission to inquire into the allegations of rigging at various constituencies is in flagrant violation of the Articles 4, 5, 97, 175 and 225 of the Constitution.
The court was prayed to declare that the proposed establishment of judicial commission to conduct inquiry into allegations of rigging and/or in any other electoral disputes in 2013 general elections was unconstitutional and unlawful and restrain the government from establishing such a judicial commission till final adjudication of the petition.
The division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, after preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices for February 6.