The lawyers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), PML-Q, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Balochistan National Party (both Mengal and Awami groups) completed their arguments before the General Elections Inquiry Commission (GEIC) on Thursday.
A three-member commission headed by Chief Justice Nasir-Ul-Mulk comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Amir Hani Muslim heard arguments from counsels of all stakeholders except MQM and the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The enquiry commission would complete its proceedings on Friday (today) after the completion of arguments by the counsels of MQM and ECP.
During the course of proceedings, the CJP asked PML-N’s counsel Shahid Hamid that PML-Q in its written arguments had submitted the transcript of former CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s speech to Returning Officers before the 2013 election. The court asked Hamid to read the speech in the court room.
The PML-N’s counsel informed the commission that PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek staged a sit-in in the federal capital and demanded resignation of the prime minister and Punjab chief minister. He further said that PML-N decided to form an enquiry commission after the allegations were leveled by PTI against judiciary and Election Commission.
Shahid Hamid said that PML-N did not rig 2013 general elections. He further pleaded that administrative mismanagement was observed in some constituencies but it could not be called systematic rigging. Therefore, the whole election could not be declared null and void, he added. He also argued that such incidents should not happen and the ECP should adopt such a transparent mechanism to stop such kind of incidents in future.
Hamid said that PTI got only 40,000 votes from Balochistan and some stakeholders did not want elections in the province at all. He said that no complaint was registered against any Returning Officer and Form 15 was missing from nearly all constituencies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The counsel for Balochistan National Party informed the commission that no caretaker provincial cabinet was formed in the province and alleged that the current leader of the House in the Balochistan Assembly won through a rigged election. He said that elections were held in the province but people were not elected, rather they were selected on the basis of liking and disliking.
Senator Mian Attiq, representing MQM, apprised the commission that Farogh Nasim, counsel for MQM could not reach Islamabad due to bad weather. He said that the commission could also consider written arguments as final arguments.
Later, the commission allowed MQM’s counsel Farogh Nasim to appear for final comments on Friday.
