Inquiry commission: Panel examines ROs conduct, summons lawyers

Special meeting to consider option of opening ballot bags and procuring Form 15

ISLAMABAD:

The inquiry commission probing alleged rigging in the May 2013 general elections on Tuesday scrutinised the conduct of returning officers (ROs) as it summoned Wednesday a special meeting of political parties’ lawyers to consider option of opening ballot bags for procuring Form 15.

Form 15 is the ballot paper account prepared by the presiding officer and it carries statistics about the number of ballot papers entrusted to him, and those taken out from the ballot boxes and counted, besides the number of tendered, challenged and spoilt ballots.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) counsel Salman Akram Raja told the three-judge inquiry commission, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, that it needed two more days to submit Forms 15 of all constituencies.

Raja admitted that all the record of Forms 15 was not in the ECP’s possession and they had mobilised hundreds of people to procure the ballot papers record from the ROs, who were additional and district session judges.



Upon this a member of the commission, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, took strong exception to retaining of Form 15 by the ROs and said that ROs were bound to submit all the record to the ECP under section 44 of the Representation of People Act 1976. “The ROs cannot retain the record of Form 15,” he said.

He said it would be better if the ECP had kept election record under its custody because now the record was lying in treasuries under the provincial governments.  “You need your own storage as you are responsible for the safe custody of all election record,” he said.

To a query of the chief justice, he said there are two methods to procure Form 15 from all constituencies.

“It can both be retrieved from ROs as well as from the record by opening of polling bags,” he said, adding that under section 45 of the Representation of People Act 1976, the ECP has the authority to open the bags, which are lying in treasury.

Objecting to the claim, Pakistan Peoples Party’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan (PPP) said polling bags could not be opened without giving notices to the returned candidates of all constituencies. “The section 45 does not give suo motu power to the ECP to open the bags,” he said.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s counsel Abdul Hafiz Pirzada expressed apprehension that the election record might be tampered with. “Let the ECP submit record, which is available in treasuries,” he added.

He proposed that instead of getting the Form 15 from ROs, a local commission should be appointed to procure Form 15 related to National Assembly’s constituencies from treasury of each district.

Justice Hani remarked that PTI was levelling serious allegations against the ROs but was also proposing to open the bags under supervision of the same judges, who performed as ROs.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2015.