Inquiry commission: Aitzaz advised to soft pedal rigging claims

For democracy’s sake, PPP leaders told not to de-legitimise the PML-N government

ISLAMABAD: Following marathon meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari is learnt to have advised his party’s legal wizard Aitzaz Ahsan to tone down his pursuit of the alleged rigging case in the 2013 general elections.

Since April 9, a three-judge inquiry commission, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, has been hearing the case to check the transparency of the last general elections.

As the commission announced that it would be poring over evidence to determine whether or not general elections were rigged, the main opposition PPP has found itself in a catch-22-like situation.



Insiders have claimed that the former president has advised his party leaders that de-legitimising the present government would not be in the interest of the democratic process, which is already in the midst of numerous challenges.

PPP’s leader Chaudhry Manzoor, who has made regular appearances before the commission, said that he was unaware of the recent development. For his part, Senator Farhatullah Babar said no relevant information could be shared with the media about the recent meeting between Asif Zardari and Aitzaz Ahsan, dismissing it as a routine party affair.

Apparently, the Punjab chapter of the PPP is striving hard to expose rigging in the province, while the party has been directed by the judicial commission to submit its reply to the rigging allegations levelled against it in Sindh. It is unclear how the Sindh chapter of the party will respond to this move.

Ahsan, appearing on behalf of the PPP, had requested the commission to provide him copies of the allegations levelled against the party so that he could frame a response.

Besides Aitzaz, former Senate chairman Nayyer Bokhari and former Punjab governor Sardar Latif Khosa are also part of the PPP’s legal team.

Ahsan has also requested the commission to reopen the polling bags of some 65 constituencies of the National Assembly from the Punjab province to determine the pattern of rigging and consequences to be faced – if mandatory documents have been destroyed by the returning officers.

The commission sought the ruling party’s lawyer Shahid Hamid’s response to the PPP’s request, which Hamid opposed, protesting that it would be one-way traffic. He asked “Why only Punjab?” and then suggested that the commission select constituencies from different parts of the country.

He suggested that as a sample for this exercise those constituencies where MQM and PPP’s candidates won during 2013 elections should be included. The matter of selection of the constituencies should not be left to Aitzaz or PTI, Hamid said. “Only the judicial commission can select such constituencies’ subject to any legal objections on this move,” Hamid added.

The commission will decide the question of whether this exercise should be carried out only in the Punjab or whether other provinces should be observed in a similar pattern.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2015.