Rigging probe: PTI submits list of 13 witnesses

Requests panel to summon and record their statements

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday requested the judicial commission probing allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections to summon 13 witnesses to record their statements.

The party, through its leading counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, submitted a list of the 13 individuals to the commission and also sought permission to cross-examine them. The judicial commission, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Nasirul Mulk, will resume the hearing today (Thursday).

According to the application, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, these individuals are Punjab caretaker chief minister Najam Sethi, Punjab caretaker government chief secretary Javed Iqbal, Punjab caretaker government additional chief secretary Rao Iftikhar, the provincial election commissioners of Punjab and Sindh, the managing directors (MDs) of the presses of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) at Karachi and Lahore at the time of the 2013 elections, the MD of security of PCP at Karachi, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) chairman Usman Yousaf Mobeen, former MNA Nabeel Gabol, senior journalist Hamid Mir and head of programmes at the Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA) department of the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) Muddassir Rizvi.

The list of proposed witnesses did not include the name of former CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry as had been suggested earlier by certain segments of the media.

“It would be in the interest of justice that the statements of these persons be recorded as prayed and that PTI also be permitted to propose questions which the commission may pose to these persons as witnesses,” reads the application. It states that the testimony, statements and evidence of these persons has a “direct nexus with the three questions to be enquired into and determined by the commission” and as such “their examination is necessary, appropriate and warranted.”

On the other hand, sources said that the PTI task force on rigging obtained NADRA analysis reports of at least 38 constituencies on Wednesday. A member of the party’s legal team, however, admitted that they have yet to file evidence in support of their 46-page statement on rigging in the 2013 polls.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan has prepared a response to PTI’s allegations and will submit it today (Thursday). A senior official revealed to The Express Tribune that renowned lawyer Salman Akram Raja has been engaged by the ECP to defend it before the commission.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2015.