PTI seeks time to furnish rigging proof

ISLAMABAD: It appears that Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) has been caught off-guard by the questionnaire presented by the Judicial Commission as the party is still busy in preparing response to the three specific questions writes Waseem Abbasi.
For around two years, PTI had been strongly claiming that May 2013 elections were heavily rigged and the mandate of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) was not genuine. On Monday it was presented with an opportunity by the commission to come up with evidence of systematic rigging and present witnesses to support its claims but the senior party officials said they need time to do the same.
“We are preparing the response right now,” said Ishaq Khakwani, head of PTI’s Task Force on rigging, when asked about the party’s response to the Judicial Commission’s questions. Asked whether PTI would be able to submit its detailed response by the next hearing on Wednesday, Khakwani said he is not sure about that.
The commission has asked the political parties to submit their responses on the
questionnaire about the alleged poll rigging by April 29. To a question regarding PTI’s preparation for rigging probe, he said, “During sit-in at D-chowk, we were saying that some officials have shown bias during 2013 elections. Now we are converting these claims into legal documents to be presented before the commission.”
He said the party will inform the commission about the pattern and trends exhibited by the Returning Officers (ROs) across Pakistan. “Is it a coincident that ROs in Buner and ROs in Karachi behaved in exactly the same manner?” he asked rhetorically.
He explained that ROs across Pakistan worked systematically by not providing form 14 of the election results to PTI worker and not allowing them access during critical moments of results consolidation.
The questionnaire poses three main questions about the 2013 elections. In its first question, the judicial commission asked whether the 2013 elections were carried out in an honest and impartial manner. It directed parties to submit supporting material and also present witnesses.
The questionnaire also inquired whether or not the elections were manipulated in a “systematic” manner and also who was behind that planning. It also further asked whether rigging was carried out in national constituencies or national and provincial. It also asked if alleged rigging was carried out in a certain province or all four provinces.