PTI chief Imran addressing his supporters. PHOTO: AFP
The judicial commission formed to investigate into allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections summoned on Saturday witnesses on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s list to appear before the inquiry body on May 6.
The witness list includes former MNA Nabeel Gabol, National Database & Registration Authority Chairman Usman Yousaf Mubeen and TV anchormen Hamid Mir and Najam Sethi.
The three-member panel, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, summoned Sethi in his capacity as former caretaker chief minister of Punjab.
The officials under his command during the caretaker setup in Punjab have also been directed to appear before the inquiry body.
These include former chief secretary Javed Iqbal, former additional chief secretary Rao Iftikhar and the Punjab election commissioner during the 2013 polls.
The judicial commission also issued summons to the Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad managing directors of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan Press who held office at the time of acquisition and printing of ballot papers for the elections.
Similarly, the Karachi managing director (MD) of the Pakistan Security Printing Corporation, the Islamabad MD of the Postal Foundation Press and the Sindh election commissioner during the 2013 polls have been directed to appear before the panel.
Muddassir Rizvi, head of programmes of the Free and Fair Election Network and the Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability, who is also on the witness list, is likely to submit a 41,000 –strong list of electoral violations and irregularities as documentary proof in the 2013 polls.
All the witnesses have been ordered to appear before the judicial commission at 1pm on May 6 at the Supreme Court in Islamabad. “Notices to the individuals with details are also being issued,” the panel stated in its written order.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s legal team has asked to cross-examine all the witnesses.
In the last hearing, the judicial body had written in its order: “In consultation with all the learned counsels representing the political parties, it was decided that the political parties may examine their own witness on oath to bring on record appropriate documents and may provide list of witnesses that they wish the commission to summon, along with brief statements of purpose for which they are to be examined. The PTI shall provide a list of the witnesses that they wish the commission to summon by May 2 who shall be summoned at 1pm on May 6. It shall present its own witnesses at 11:30am on May 5.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 3rd, 2015.
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