Rigging chorus: Thunder in D-chowk

PTI chief unveils nine-point charter of demands, asks all parties to join hands for electoral reforms.

ISLAMABAD:

D Chowk of the federal capital was draped in red and green, the colours of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s flag. Thousands of zealous supporters descended on Jinnah Avenue to renew their party’s campaign against the alleged rigging that took place  in the 2013 parliamentary elections. At least Imran Khan lived up to his promise.

At the venue, fired-up young PTI supporters sang and danced to motivational songs. They had travelled to the federal capital from different parts of the country, mainly from Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Amid thunderous applause, Imran spelt out his nine-point charter of demands, calling for the reconfiguration of the election commission, re-verification of voters with thumbprint impressions in the four National Assembly constituencies where he believes the elections were rigged.

“We demand immediate verification of thumbprints in the four constituencies identified by PTI and the process should be completed within two weeks,” he said. “If the rigging is not investigated, we will stage a protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) offices every Friday.”

He said that all incumbent members of the ECP must resign forthwith because they have lost the confidence of the nation. “This is not an Election Commission. It has become a ‘selection commission’,” he said, calling for an overhaul of the entire election mechanism to make it more transparent.

Similarly, the selection of chairman and members of the ECP should be changed to ensure the commission functions as a truly independent body as guaranteed in the Constitution.  And all returning officers should be legally accountable to the ECP for their performance in the conduct of elections.

The PTI chief demanded that all those found guilty of abetting rigging in the 2013 elections be brought to justice to pave the way for a true democracy in the country.

“We demand that post-election appeals must be decided within the stipulated time, which is 120 days, by law and those not complying must be held accountable,” he added. “All future elections must be under the biometric system.”

Imran also appealed for steps to prevent members of an interim set-up from holding any public office for two years after serving as caretakers.

He also invited all parties who want electoral reforms to form a committee with the PTI and come up with a comprehensive electoral reform package for Parliament to pass.

He announced that the next protest rally will be held in Faisalabad on May 23, calling upon all those parties who believe the elections were not free and fair to join hands with his party in its ‘movement to fix the system’.

In his speech the PTI chief also took the government to task over what he called bad governance, rampant inflation, swelling debts, chronic power crisis and widespread unemployment. According to him, even the previous PPP government was better than the incumbent. “Circular debt may have piled up Rs500 billion during the five-year tenure of the PPP government, but it has reached almost the same level within just one year of the current government,” he said.

He lambasted the PML-N leadership for stashing their monies in foreign banks while taxing the poor Pakistanis. “Why will any foreign investor invest in our country if our rulers invest their monies in other countries?” he asked. “The Sharif brothers are among the top investors in the UK, US, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, yet our country is looking for foreign investors.”

Imran questioned why the government has not taken any serious step to bring back the $200 billion of Pakistanis stowed away in Swiss banks. “If this money is brought back, then there will be no need to levy new taxes on poor Pakistanis for the next decade or so,” he said.

He also heaped scorn at the government decision to spend billions of rupees on the Metro bus project. Citing the Asian Development Bank reports, he said a  Rs4 billion project is costing Rs40 billion due to massive corruption and huge kickbacks.

Earlier addressing the rally, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that the government blamed his party and PTI for attempting to derail democracy – but “we believe there is no democracy because the elections were massively rigged”.

He said there was dynastic politics in Pakistan as a handful of families have been ruling the country in the name of so-called democracy. “I’ll define such democracy as for the families, by the families and of the families,” he said..

PTI President Javed Hashmi, Secretary General Jehangir Khan Tareen, Vice Chairperson Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Jamaat-e-Islami’s Punjab Amir Mian Mohammad Aslam also addressed the rally. All of them called for a free and neutral election commission.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2014.