ISLAMABAD - The Judicial Commission (JC) constituted to investigate alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections handed a questionnaire to the political parties on Monday, asking them to submit responses and provide evidence supporting their claims.
Chairing the meeting of the commission Monday, Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk said the terms and conditions for the commission were clear but replies of most political parties were not in accordance with the ToRs.
During the commission’s ongoing investigation, the questionnaire was sent out asking three main questions about the 2013 general elections. Each question had a further sub-question to ensure clarity in responses.
The questionnaire asked whether the political party alleges that the general election 2013 were not organised and conducted impartially, fairly and justly in accordance with the law and if it is so, it should give specific reasons. It should also indicate the material and witnesses on which it will rely in order to support the allegation.
Secondly, if the elections were manipulated or influenced pursuant to a systematic order or by design by anyone? If it was so, who made the plan/design, what was the plan/design and who implemented the plan/design? It should also indicate the material and witnesses on which the party will rely on in order to support its allegations and how was the plan/design implemented.
Thirdly, the questionnaire asked whether the systematic effort included just the National Assembly seats or Provincial Assemblies seats as well. It said if it was only National Assembly where rigging took place, does it include all four provinces or just confined to certain provinces?
The commission also asked political parties to submit material and name witnesses to support their allegations and responses in the questionnaire.
According to the details, the JC held a meeting on Monday as the probe of the alleged rigging moved forward after different parliamentary parties submitted records and key documents.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan participated in the meeting.
The JC urged the political parties to cooperate in the matter.
Questionnaires were distributed among members of different political parties to help the commission probing the matter.
Later talking to media, PML-N leaders said the Judicial Commission has asked written proofs of allegations from all the political parties.
Meanwhile, Imran Khan urged the Judicial Commission to initially reopen seven constituencies to investigate alleged rigging in 2013 elections.
Khan demanded this while speaking to media after attending hearing of the three-member judicial panel.
Khan said he supported Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) counsel Senator Aitzaz Ahsan’s viewpoint which he presented before the commission that seven constituencies could initially be reopened for investigation.
“The evidence of rigging is in the bags. Aitzaz Ahsan is right in demanding that seven seats should be reopened... If you have nothing to hide give the go-ahead to open the bags,” he said.
The PTI chief said he had urged the commission to also investigate role of provincial election commission heads.
“Twenty-one political parties have said it with one voice that there was a scientific and deliberate rigging. Listen to Nawaz Sharif’s statement yourselves, he said rigging happened in Haripur,” Khan said.
Khan questioned who directed printing of one crore ballot papers.
In response, Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid asked Imran Khan what proof the PTI had collected all these months if all the evidence of election rigging was present inside ballot bags.
“Imran Khan has lost the faith that people had in him by lying to them over and over again,” he said. Criticising the PTI chairman, he said that Imran Khan should stop misleading the people. He claimed Imran earlier faced embarrassment after examination of ballot bags in NA-122.