PTI to implement recommendations of inquiry committee

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Information Secretary Naeemul Haq on Saturday said his party would implement the recommendations of the inquiry committee headed by chief secretary and judicial commission probing the alleged rigging and mismanagement in the recently held local government elections in Khyber Pakh-tunkhwa.
Addressing Meet-the-Press programme of the Peshawar Press Club, he said the provincial government had formed the inquiry committee to probe the allegations of mismanagement and rigging in the LG elections.
When asked whether the government would step down if the inquiry committee or judicial commission for which, as intimated by the provincial government, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) would be requested, Naeemul Haq very diligently parried the query by saying that recommendations of the committee and judicial commission, if formed for the purpose, would be implemented.
About the reported mismanagement in the local government elections in the province, he said both the government and the Election Commission were inexperienced in holding such a huge election wherein around 42, 000 representatives were to be elected. He said the police personnel were also not sufficient for around 11,000 polling stations set up for the polls across the 24 districts.
The PTI leader said the inquiry committee would help provide a roadmap for the judicial commission, if formed any, by putting together the facts about the reported mismanagement in the election.
Holding out talks offer to the opposition parties in the province, Naeemul Haq termed the protest of the opposition parties against the government involvement in the alleged rigging as a “flop show” and said the PTI candidates had also come up to the central leadership with numerous complaints of rigging against opponents in the local government polls.
To a question about the reservations of the PTI’s coalition partner in the provincial government, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Naeemul Haq said the JI had its own organisational setup.
“At the central level its (JI) leadership takes policy level decision, while at the local level its leadership is independent in its decisions,” he said and added that JI contested election against the PTI candidates in Karachi, Multan and Mandi Bahuddin.
Earlier in his monologue, the PTI leaders said that his party was the largest political party in the country and it was going to hold intra-party election next year after the local government elections in Punjab.
About the policies of the PTI at the central level, Naeemul Haq said the matter of judicial commission probing the allegations of rigging the general election was the priority issue for the party and around 100,000 proofs had been submitted to the judicial commission.
He said the it was the contention of the PTI lawyer, Hafeez Pirzada, that matter corroborated only by solid proofs should be taken up in the commission; “that why even those who played a role in (rigging) in the last general election were not taken to it (commission).
The PTI leader said the issues of former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday and even that of the 35 punctures were not raised in the judicial commission.