PTI eyeing to get Senate polls stalled in garb of vote probe

• Govt’s legal experts left high and dry over PTI’s ‘hidden’ attempt to get proposed judicial commission to have retrospective power to check authenticity of assemblies formed after 2013 polls
• PTI’s Qureshi rubbishes accusations, denies PTI attempting to stall senate polls

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is aiming at getting the Senate elections stalled by starting a legal battle once the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) agrees to forming a “supra judicial commission” to probe allegations of rigging in the 2013 General Elections, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.

A source privy to the details of the third round dialogue held between PTI and the ruling PML-N on Saturday confided in Pakistan Today that the PTI negotiating team has forwarded some new provisos to be included in the terms of references (ToRs) of the proposed judicial commission which will make commission “super powerful”.

Besides, due to these provisos, the added clauses would have retrospective effect over the 2013 polls, added the source.

“Though both the sides came up with new proposals and amendments to their respective drafts and some development were made in talks, the bone of contention still remains,” said the source.

PTI and PML-N negotiating teams met at the residence of PTI Secretary General Jahangir Tareen for a “make or break meeting”, yet the talks remained inconclusive and now the two parties will meet again on Tuesday after seeking guidance from their respective party leaders, the source announced.

Asked whether there was a hope of a major breakthrough between PTI and the government, the source said that both the camps have a “trust deficit” and chances of a settlement between the two were bleak.

‘PTI’S SECRET SENATE PLAN’:

However, in an interesting development, the source said that the new proposals from PTI suggest that there was a “secret plan” to get the Senate election stalled in garb of getting a “supra judicial commission formed for vote audit”.

These new legal clauses proposed by PTI have left the legal wizards of the government high and dry and they are forced to think that there is some “hidden agenda” in the vote audit demand from PTI, said the source.

The source added that if the government forms a commission and a thorough vote audit is launched, PTI plans to move the Supreme Court to get the Senate elections stalled till the time the commission decides whether the polls were fair or were massively rigged.

“PTI aims at asking the apex court that since the judicial commission has to decide whether the polls were rigged or not, the legitimacy of the national and provincial assemblies has to be decided. Hence, the assemblies which will have to be authenticated would not be entitled to elect Senate members,” said the source, adding that PTI is likely to get a favorable decision from the court with this argument.

With noted jurist Abdul Hafeez Pirzada masterminding the party’s legal drafts and proposals, the party wants to compel the government negotiators to agree on forming a powerful judicial commission which has powers to summon any state agency and investigate any matter it wants, said the source. However, there is no legal precedence for such a commission in the country’s history, the source added.

The source went on to say that PTI has demanded the government to get the commission formed through a presidential ordinance and the clauses proposed by PTI to be added in the commission’s ToRs.

However, speaking to Pakistan Today, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi denied the impression that his party was trying to get the Senate polls stalled. He negated that PTI had any secret plan and said that the party was showing flexibility and sincerely working to end the political impasse through vote probe.

Speaking to media after the talks, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that PML-N made held a detailed discussion “with an open mind on the three issues highlighted by PTI”.

“Our team agreed to all points except the three related to the proposed judicial commission,” said Dar.

Addressing reporters, PTI Central Information Secretary Shireen Mazari said that while some progress was made, there was no agreement on the outstanding core issues.

Talking to media, PTI leader Tareen said that both the sides demonstrated flexibility and “the issue can be settled if the government team takes another step forward”, adding that PTI would not doubt the government’s intention.