What they say

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    1ANP Central President Asfandyar Wali Khan: In the light of Judicial Commission report, which declared that the allegations levelled by Imran Khan were false, the government should send a reference for the disqualification of the PTI leadership to the Election Commission. So in future nobody dares to put the country at risk for personal gains. We should make it a lesson for everyone.

    2JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman: After the Judicial Commission report it must be probed what was the real agenda behind the dharna and who was the mastermind of London Plan. It must also be investigated on whose agenda Imran Khan was working.

    3Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Former PTI President: He (Imran Khan) told the PTI leadership that five to six generals are supporting them who will make Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resign and PTI will come to power.

    4PPP Senator Saeed Ghani: All the political parties believe that the 2013 general elections were rigged but due to immature politics and policies of PTI the Judicial Commission report which came out will act as a certificate which had declared the elections free and fair.

    5Sheikh Waqas Akram, PML-N Leader: I already knew what was going to happen. PTI people are not aware of the procedures of the tribunals. They did not have any real grounds. They proved no real evidence; rather Mr Khan provided all the evidence with his fully-loaded trucks. Now this is not how cases are fought.

    6Saad Rasool, Prominent Lawyer and Journalist: When it comes to the content of the report, it was a very timid report and was written in a non-bold manner. Irregularities have been mentioned, but the way they should have been mentioned and addressed was not given consideration. In this regard, it was a bit disappointing. To me, at least, it protected the status quo. After finding the irregularities, the commission had two alternatives. It could state that no significant presence of rigging was there, or it could explain that these irregularities signify serious trouble. To my disappointment, the commission chose the first alternative.

    7Waqqas Mir, Barrister and Analyst: I would say that everybody has to play by the rules, and this applies to Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif alike. In a democracy, no one is considered more impartial than the Supreme Court. In this case though, the judges were not really acting in the capacity of Supreme Court, rather they were acting on the behalf of the commission. And the fact that the report was made public says a lot about its authenticity.

    8Hassan Askari Rizvi, Political Analyst: The Commission has given the elections legal cover, but it will continue to be haunted by matters pertaining to political acceptability. Remember it was not just Imran that complained about the rigging. But the judiciary traditionally leans towards preserving the status quo, and in this case it remained within the mandate of investigation wilful rigging.

    9Adnan Rehmat, Media Analyst: The verdict of the Judicial Commission should be seen as the best endorsement for electoral reforms. Instead of seeing this as a PTI loss or PML-N win and therefore losing the lesson, PTI and Imran should now productively focus on demanding and inserting whatever changes it wants by way of a fairer electoral process and election system by sitting with PML-N, PPP and others in the parliamentary committee currently considering such reforms.

    10Mobeen Ahmed Chughtai, Political Economist: In this era of the post Judicial Commission report, Imran Khan finds himself juggling conundrums. On the one hand, his absolute, unflinching and expressed faith in the Judicial Commission and its constituting judges, on the other this finding that goes against him.