VIEW POINT: The unresolved issue of electoral rigging

May 08, 2014

SAIDA FAZAL

0 Comments

PTI Chairman Imran Khan is all set to launch his protest movement on May 11 to expose those he accuses of having "stolen the people's mandate through rigging." He has three good reasons to choose the timing. First, of course, is the obvious reason that it would be exactly one year to the day general elations were held. Anniversary is a good time to remind the people that his party's complaints about rigging in 35 constituencies remain unaddressed. Second, to establish that PTI is the real opposition rather than the PPP - the formally-designated parliamentary opposition. And third, to stay in the centre spot of national politics.

He is taking aim in as many directions: the government, former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, and Geo TV. The last one is the least important in the current context. The specific segment of Geo's coverage the PTI has taken issue with pertains to what the party says was Mian Nawaz Sharif's premature victory speech. The speech in fact was covered by all channels. Even if the accusation of Geo taking a pro-PML-N position is true, that should be a non-issue as long as the channel observes the principle of objective reporting. Newspapers and TV networks in functioning democracies tend to tilt, too, towards parties in line with their own approach to political, economic, or social issues.

The PTI leader's targeting of the other two entities, though, is understandable. Notably, he accuses the former CJ of turning a blind eye to his party's complaints of polls rigging, and the ruling PML-N of having committed fraud in some 35 constituencies. To make his case, Imran refers to the example of NA-118 results, challenged by his party candidate Hamid Zaman at the cost Rs 5.7 million - expenses for election tribunal proceedings, thumb verifications from Nadra and lawyers' fees - to find out the truth. What he discovered, as per former Justice Munir Mughal's report explained by Imran is that "in this constituency out of a total of 325 vote bags handed over by the presiding officer to the returning officer, only 69 were genuine while 256 bags either contained incomplete or fake votes." More to the point, he says, out of a total of 170,000 votes cast, there was no record of 90,000 votes, while the information about half of the remainder was either incomplete or fake. And yet nothing was done to rectify the situation.

Imran has genuine cause for complaint and to accuse Justice Chaudhry of being unfair. The ex-CJ had refused to hear his party's pleas saying the court had no time for such complaints while it had some 20,000 pending cases to attend to. And yet, as Imran keeps pointing out, the ex-CJ had all the time to take suo motu notice of the small matter of a citizen illegally carrying a bottle of wine aboard the national carrier - inspired, of course, by an urge to settle personal scores with his nemesis, General Pervez Musharraf, to whose party the law breaker belonged.

This far the PTI Chairman is right in questioning justice Chaudhry's conduct. He may be partial towards the PML-N, as the PTI leader alleges. Nonetheless, it makes little sense to take exception to the former top adjudicator's address to the returning officers who belonged to the subordinate judiciary, and accuse him of having played an active role in delivering the election to the PML-N. Even if for argument's sake one assumes that he wanted the ROs to favour the Nawaz League it is difficult to fathom how and through what mechanism could he have fulfilled his wish. The ROs on their own might have played a questionable role, just like the PTI insists they did. There is no doubt, however, that the judiciary under Justice Chaudhry did cast a blind eye to the issue of rigging, of which the main beneficiary in the largest population Punjab province has been the Nawaz League.

The PTI position on the issue then and now is both practical and sensible, ie, it accepts the election results to keep democracy on track, but that the truth must be established. And as a test case, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) must carry out thumbprint verifications in four constituencies. Interestingly, various government spokesmen have been trying to evade verification citing flimsy excuses such as that the ink used for thumbprints was substandard and hence it is impossible to do the needful. The concerned official, former Nadra Chairman Tariq Malik, who knew whether verification was possible or not, does not agree. And hence was fired in a dubious manner, reinstated briefly under public criticism but then forced to resign because he had indicated a willingness to undertake the required verification exercise.

Malik has since fled to a safe location abroad. In an interview he gave a newspaper the other day the former Nadra head had a lot to say about the rigging issue. Quoting an instance involving one Hadi Bux Jatoi of village Jawan Jatoi, he said Nadra had identified that the man had cast 310 votes at polling station No 209 in NA-202 Shikarpur and reported the same to the relevant authorities. No action was taken against Bux, he grumbled. Instead, Malik claimed, Nadra and he faced a "witch hunt". These allegations, of course, will remain mere allegations unless proven in a court of law. Malik says he is ready to appear before the Supreme Court to expose the alleged election fraud.

The government may or may not have had mala fide intentions in forcing the Nadra Chairman out. But resolving the rigging issue is not its responsibility; it is for the election tribunals and the courts to deliver justice. There are rules of the game and a mechanism in place to address electoral complaints. From the citizens' perspective the key issue is not whether one party is in the wrong and the other right, but that no one should be able to disenfranchise them through fraud. The system must uphold the people's right to choose whomsoever they deem fit to represent them. For that to happen all must play by the rules. It is important therefore that the system responds to PTI's grievances so at the next elections people go in to vote with greater trust in the democratic process.

saida_fazal@yahoo.com