Time for Imran to prove allegations against ex-CJP, others

ISLAMABAD: All eyes are set on Imran Khan and his PTI for the provision of evidence to Judicial Commission against all those who were publicly blamed for being part of the alleged conspiracy to rig the 2013 general elections in favour of PML-N and against the PTI.
However, sources in the PTI indicate that the party might avoid taking names before the Judicial Commission in view of lack of evidence against those who were otherwise publicly blamed repeatedly for stealing the PTI’s mandate.
Legal experts within the party and outside, consulted by Tehrik-e-Insaaf, are reportedly of the view that naming the persons without concrete evidence before the judicial commission would be embarrassing for party and its chief.
For the last one year Imran Khan and PTI have been accusing a number of persons and government institutions of rigging the elections to the advantage of the PML-N.
The allegations of getting bribe and other monitory benefits from PML-N chief and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were also leveled against some of those who enjoy good repute. Demands were made to try some of those accused under Article 6.
Those accused include former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was blamed for getting the elections rigging through Returning Officers. The ROs were the sitting District and Session Judges, appointed not by the Chief Justice of Pakistan but by the respective High Courts’ chief justices.
There is not even a single document or statement of former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry wherein he had asked the ROs to help any candidate or political party.
As against the PTI allegations, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on September 17, 2014 after previewing the video recording of ex-CJP address to the returning officers, had rejected Imran Khan’s allegations that Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had influenced the process of appointment of returning officers and their performance in the last year’s polls.
Similarly, the then chief election commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim and some of Commission members particularly from the Punjab were accused of rigging the elections for Nawaz Sharif and PML-N. Interestingly no evidence has ever been shared either by IK or the PTI against Fakhru Bhai or any member of the Commission.
PTI had also accused Anwar Mehboob, Punjab Election Commissioner. It was alleged that Mehboob, who was alleged to have been transferred from Sindh in violation of ECP rules, had printed new ballot papers on the orders received from the top. Imran Khan had claimed that ballot papers for the 2013 elections were printed somewhere else and not in the Pakistan Printing Press.
Anwar Mahboob, in his statement to the ECP containing all necessary details, had rebutted the charges against him. He had said, “I, Mahboob Anwar, PEC Punjab, hereby vehemently rebut the allegations leveled against me as totally baseless, frivolous and without any substance. I did my duty with clean hands. I categorically deny and state that not even a single ballot paper was got printed from any private printing press, as alleged.”
Former Judge of the apex court Justice (R) Khalilur Rehman Ramday was also accused of controlling the ROs besides organising the victory speech of Nawaz Sharif. In a statement, Justice (r) Ramday asked if he (Ramday) had invited 200-250 ROs to his place for dinner and Chief Justice was also there, wasn’t Imran Khan able to find any evidence for it? Ramday believed that some allies of Imran Khan were misguiding him.
The then caretaker chief minister Punjab Najam Sethi was accused by Imran Khan of having been appointed as the country’s cricket chief by PM Nawaz Sharif because of Sethi’s alleged role in fixing ‘35 punctures’, a reference to 35 constituencies where elections were rigged in favour of PML-N. However, no evidence was ever produced to this effect by the PTI.
Imran Khan has also repeatedly alleged that Geo/Jang Group was also involved in the rigging. It was argued that since the victory speech of Nawaz Sharif was first aired by Geo, therefore, it was part of the greater election rigging conspiracy. The fact though was that all TV channels showed Nawaz Sharif’s speech live. The Ge/Jang Group chief executive was also blamed from getting money from Nawaz Sharif government but here too no evidence was ever produced or shared.
Now following the setting up of the Judicial Commission and its requests to all political parties to share their evidence of rigging, it is time for Imran Khan and PTI to prove allegations of rigging.