ECP seeks call data record of 20 ‘missing’ presiding officers

ISLAMABAD: In a major development, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has approached the government seeking the call data record (CDR) of the mobile numbers of all those 20 presiding officers who, with their consent, were ‘missing’ for hours along with ballots bags on the night of the controversial and recently nullified Daska by-election.

Government sources confided to The News that the ECP has approached the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which in turn has contacted the government for a decision on whether or not it should provide the required information to the ECP.

Under the law, every government official, agency and authority is bound by the Constitution and the law to follow the orders of the ECP with regard to its duty of holding free and fair elections. The Commission’s order cannot be ignored unless stayed or reversed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

According to the sources, the government is feeling uneasy about the ECP’s latest move, that could possibly lead to unmasking those who had planned and supervised the Daska by-poll rigging. The CDR details will be critical in determining the activities of the 20 ‘missing’ presiding officers who, after the polling and counting of votes, had disappeared for several hours instead of immediately reporting to the Returning Officer.

The mobile data will not only establish the whereabouts of these 20 presiding officers during the time when they were missing but will also uncover those they were in contact with. A senior government source confided to The News that if the required data is provided to the Election Commission, it will possibly expose the rigging plan as well as those who were pulling the strings of these presiding officers.

The ECP has already decided to refer the trial of the 20 presiding officers to a session court for their alleged involvement in the rigging of the Daska by-poll. The PML-N has alleged that instead of reporting to the returning officer for the final compilation of the result, the missing presiding officers had disappeared ‘with their consent’ and had gathered at a local farmhouse where the results of the 20 polling stations were changed.

For several hours, these presiding officers were missing and remained untraced to both the RO and the Election Commission of Pakistan. The ECP had tried contacting all the concerned officers of the police and civil administration but no one was available.

In its press release on the day after the Daska by-poll, the ECP put it on the record that only the Punjab chief secretary was contacted once at 3 am but he too never got back to the ECP with information regarding the missing presiding officers. The IG police Punjab, the commissioner and RPO Gujranwala, the concerned deputy commissioner and DPO were also contacted by the Commission but none of these officers were available.

While nullifying the Daska by-poll, the ECP had summoned the chief secretary and IGP on March 4 besides ordering the removal of the commissioner and RPO Gujranwala and the suspension of the concerned deputy commissioner, DPO, two assistant commissioners and two DSPs.

The Commission has yet to decide whether inquiries against these civil administration and police officers will be conducted by the ECP itself or will be referred to the federal and Punjab government to probe.

In case the ECP decides that it will itself hold the inquiries against these officials, it would be unsettling for those who had planned and executed from behind the scenes the entire Daska by-poll rigging plan.