Finally the judicial commission

Probing a flawed election

Finally, the judicial commission probing the alleged rigging in 2013 elections has set up shop. The PTI chief Imran Khan is euphoric about the seminal event.

And he should be. The formation of the judicial commission headed by CJP Nasir-ul-Mulk and its terms of reference (TORs) as per the Khan’s wish list is a direct result of PTI’s travails.

The PTI chief has declared 2015 as the year of general elections. Being the lead party it claims that the Sharifs, in cahoots with the then CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the caretakers, literally stole the elections largely at its expense.

But there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. It is one thing to claim from the top of a container and through the media day in and day out that 2013 elections were bogus and fraudulent. It is quite another matter proving such serious allegations in a court of law.

Unlike his predecessor the current CJP does not seem to have a penchant for a media trial. Perhaps that is why he has forbidden the media from operating within the premises of the apex court. Likewise, politicians have been asked not to use the court’s premises for speaking to the media.

Although the PTI has submitted a 45-page document to support its contention of rigging, the JC has given an additional seven days to all political parties for submitting detailed evidence of rigging. The PTI says it has a room full of evidence including video footage, record of constituencies where voting exceeded the number of registered voters, and real or perceived excesses of the election staff.

However, the Khan, in order to walk the talk, will have to come up with hard evidence in support of some of his specific allegations. For example, whether Mr Najam Sethi, the caretaker chief minister of Punjab during the 2013 elections, had actually instructed 35 constituencies to be managed will have to be supported with specific corroboration.

The Khan has been claiming that he is in possession of a taped conversation in which the caretaker CM is talking about ‘35 punctures’. Hitherto no such evidence has been presented.

Similarly, to claim that the then CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was spearheading a grand conspiracy of rigging will be difficult to substantiate. That returning officers should be from the judiciary was something that the PTI had originally demanded.

But there are many a slip between the cup and the lip. It is one thing to claim from the top of a container and through the media day in and day out that 2013 elections were bogus and fraudulent. It is quite another matter proving such serious allegations in a court of law

Later it cried foul that these officers played the role of primary riggers. As it is, the respective high courts and not the apex court appointed the session judges. The former CJP, who himself has asked to appear in the JC to set the record straight, which if he is allowed to do so will be an interesting spectacle.

Also, allegations frequently hurled by IK during the dharna that an election cell to engineer the 2013 elections was headed by former judge of the Supreme Court Justice (rtd) Khalil Ramday and was located at his house, will have to be backed by concrete proof.

The PTI has also been alleging that an Urdu Bazaar printer in Lahore illegally printed unauthorised ballot papers. Surreptitious printing of election material on the eve of the general elections is a very serious charge. Again if mala fide intentions backed by concrete evidence are proved, it will seriously impact on the credibility of the elections.

The PPP also claims that it was a victim of organised election fraud. It has submitted complaints about specific allegations of rigging in many constituencies of Punjab.

However, as the party in power at the time it suffered from the obvious drawback of its poor performance in incumbency. The PPP was badly handicapped by the main opposition PML-N’s concerted campaign against its misrule.

Being the party in power in Punjab, the Nawaz League, under the stewardship of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, effectively destroyed the already tarnished brand of the PPP. Subsequently, most of the ruling PPP’s federal ministers lost so badly that they had to forfeit their security deposits.

Hence the gap between the winning candidate and the losers was so big that PPP’s poor performance will be difficult to pin on the sole factor of organised rigging. The party, despite a lapse of almost two years, is yet to get its act together in Punjab where it has little or no presence.

Both the PPP and the ANP suffered from an obvious disadvantage as they were being openly threatened and targeted by the TTP. The terrorist threat not only hampered their capacity to campaign but also gave an unfair advantage to pro-TTP parties like the PML-N and the PTI.

Whatever the outcome of the JC, there is no gainsaying that the Election Commission and to some extent the caretakers failed to perform their mandated job. I was caretaker information minister in the interim cabinet. The caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, being minded by his military secretary, was just a helpless spectator merely keeping his seat warm.

Under this dispensation the caretakers, at least at the federal level, had little or no role in the conduct of elections. There was an obvious disconnect between the caretaker prime minister and the Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim. They were hardly on speaking terms.

Whatever the findings of the JC, its outcome will determine the extent of the flawed nature of the 2013 elections. These polls, if not part of a malicious grand conspiracy, were marred by herculean blunders and incompetence

Taking these two octogenarian gentlemen from the higher judiciary, even as an experiment, was a dismal failure. The CEC heading the so-called independent Election Commission seemed hardly interested in his job. He would prefer to stay in his hometown Karachi playing golf, while the members of the Election Commission ruled the roost in Islamabad.

The Commission’s members from Punjab and KP were hyperactive. And so was the Secretary Election Commission, who really enjoyed engaging the media as often as he could, mostly on frivolous matters.

Ironically, the Election Commission failed to do its mandated job. It neither had the capacity nor the will to set up an efficient and transparent machine for the conduct of fair and free elections.

It will be an interesting exercise for future conduct of elections if the JC invites ‘Fakhroo bhai’ to depose. He should enlighten not only the worthy judges but the nation as well why he did not resign if he was being hampered to do his mandated job.

Whatever the findings of the JC, its outcome will determine the extent of the flawed nature of the 2013 elections. These polls, if not part of a malicious grand conspiracy, were marred by herculean blunders and incompetence.

Any future election commission should be a powerful body headed by an empowered CEC who is not merely the first amongst equals. And no retired judges please. India has done well with holding fair and free elections without hiring retired judges.

Many of its past CECs, including TN Seshan, were retired bureaucrats. Being so powerful he virtually became a tyrant. Seshan, as India’s CEC (1990-96), largely ended malpractices in elections by introducing major reforms. He reinvented the status, role and visibility of the Election Commission of India. That is what we need for conducting of free and fair elections in the future.

A powerful and financially independent election commission obviates the need for caretakers. Pakistan right now has a chimerical set up to hold elections. Obviously it needs to be changed.