Govt fears and ECP’s probe into Daska rigging case

ISLAMABAD: The press conference on Monday by ministers demanding the resignation of the entire Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was a pre-emptive move to counter the ECP’s probe into the Daska by-poll rigging case. Sources say that the government has information that the ECP has found some vital evidence about the alleged rigging plot in Daska, that if made public or presented before the apex court would be highly embarrassing for the government. The sources say that the government has been told that the ECP has found ‘solid evidence’ about the presence of most of the 20 ‘missing’ presiding officers at a particular location outside Daska on the night of the polls. Instead of reporting to the Returning Officer immediately after the culmination of the voting and counting process, these presiding officers had disappeared for several hours.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had 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 ballot bags on the night of the controversial and recently nullified Daska by-election.

The ECP was provided the information that revealed that most of these missing presiding officers had gathered at the same location outside Daska. The CDR details could possibly lead to the unmasking of those who had planned and supervised the Daska by-poll rigging.

For several hours on that fateful night, the presiding officers remained untraced to both the RO and the ECP. The CEC had tried contacting all the concerned officers of the police and civil administration until late that night but no one was available.

In its press release on the day after the Daska by-poll, the ECP had put it on record that only the Punjab chief secretary was successfully 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 was 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 ECP 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 will be very unsettling for those who had planned and executed the entire Daska by-poll rigging plan from behind the scenes.

The present ECP has been appointed with the consent and approval of the prime minister who has expressed his trust in the Commission in the past. However, the government got upset with the ECP when, instead of endorsing the presidential reference against secret balloting in the Senate elections, it had supported before the apex court the concept of secret balloting citing constitutional and legal provisions.

The ECP was of the view that it was bound to conduct elections as per the provisions of the Constitution and the law.

Before the Senate elections, the government had asked the ECP to use barcode technology on ballot papers for the elections. This technology, the government argued, would enable the ECP to identify the name of the voter if ordered by the court or the government.

In the government’s view, this move would prevent the buying of votes in the Senate elections. But the problem for the ECP was that what the government demanded was not possible according to the Constitution, in which Article 226 strictly says that all elections should be held through a secret ballot except those for the PM and CMs. The ECP also stated in its written reply to the SC that putting a barcode on ballot papers would be a violation of Article 226.

The government was told that there are only two possible ways to print a barcode on ballots: either if parliament amended Article 226 or the SCP issued the required order. Neither of these two happened. Yousaf Raza Gillani’s eventual success against the PTI government’s candidate Dr Hafeez Shaikh in the Senate election had incensed the government and the prime minister.

In a televised speech, Imran Khan strongly criticised the ECP and held it responsible for Gillani’s victory. The ECP responded through a strongly-worded press release stating that it would not be pressurised into acting in a manner that would be in violation of the Constitution and the law.