ECP to initiate departmental, criminal proceedings against officials involved in Daska by-election debacle

Following the Daska by-election debacle,  the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday decided to initiate departmental proceedings or criminal proceedings, or both against officials involved in the Daska by-election debacle.

The decision comes after the ECP had released an inquiry report last week, revealing that the NA-75 Sialkot-IV by-election held in Daska on February 19 was not held in a fair, free, and transparent manner.

The ECP has decided to take action against the officers during a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja with the body's members in attendance, a statement from the body said.

The ECP has constituted a committee comprising special secretary, director-general law, and other officials, who will assist the election commission in the inquiry against all the officials involved in the debacle, the statement said.

The statement revealed that the returning officer (RO) and district returning officer (DRO), who — according to the report — had failed to do their jobs, were ordered to report to the ECP.

Both the officials are now officers on special duty (OSD), while the election commission mulls further action against them in line with the report's findings, the statement said.

According to the ECP's investigation report, RO and DRO remained confined to their offices and failed to discharge their responsibilities properly. Both RO and DRO also refrained from taking decisions under sensitive situations.

The ECP's inquiry report was compiled by two committees, which were tasked to find out the reasons behind the debacle.

The fact-finding team gathered details from official records obtained from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Islamabad; Intelligence Bureau, Islamabad; District Police, Sialkot; Elite Police Force; written statements and supplementary question and answer sessions of the presiding officers (POs), senior assistant presiding officers, naib qasids, drivers, and police personnel, etc.

'PML-N-ECP nexus'

PTI's Firdous Ashiq Awan's name was also included in the fact-finding report.

According to the report, of the staff employed for election duty from the education department, Muhammad Iqbal Kaloya, Deputy Director (Colleges), Sialkot, was found involved in attending meetings at AC House, Daska, "which were meant for manipulating the election process", in which Ali Abbas, Zeeshan Javed, Asif Hussain, Firdous Ashiq Awan, Muhammad Awais, and some other persons were present.

Responding to the inclusion of her name in the report, Awan on Monday said she had moved Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and ECP against media, PML-N, and the election commission itself.

"I will continue to expose the PML-N-ECP nexus," she said.

The former aide to the prime minister said PML-N and ECP had played a "vicious game" to release an "unsigned report".

She told PML-N that they could not succeed in their "nefarious goals" against her.

Without naming, she said that a media group had "blatantly violated" journalistic norms by airing an unsigned report from the ECP, which proved PTI's reservations against "PML-N-ECP nexus".