‘Secretive elections’: PPPP intra-party polls challenged

Safdar Abbasi and Agha Nasir approach ECP alleging the exercise was only done on paper.

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians faced embarrassment when some of its alienated members approached the election commission against ‘secretive intra-party polls’.

Former senator Safdar Ali Abbasi and MNA Agha Nasir Ali Shah filed a joint petition requesting the commission to declare the intra-party polls farcical, a mala fide exercise on paper only which fell short of complying with statutory requirements under the 2002 political parties order.

The petitioners also made Law Minister Farooq H Naek, who allegedly conducted the intra-party elections for various positions in the party, as a respondent.

The petition reads that the manner in which these elections have been held have raised questions because fundamental flaws were noted by many of the members of the party, the general public and the media.

It added that no one in the party knew about the intra-party polls. The party members were never informed of filing of the nomination papers, their scrutiny or even the election date. The entire process was secretly done and it was not until the final announcement of office-bearers that the other members came to know about the election. Seemingly, the exercise was only done on paper and predetermined results were announced. This meant that all the candidates returned to their previous positions unopposed.



The petitioners also pointed out that no prior notification for the formation of election commission for holding intra-party elections was issued or publicised. They added that the list of the members was never distributed among other party members.

The petition filed to the ECP further reads that the absence of transparency in the process meant that there was no mechanism for letting new entrants in the party or for the old party workers to make their way up in the existing hierarchy.

In a separate move, Chief of Pakistan Peoples Party- (SB), Ghinwa Bhutto also filed an application with the ECP seeking enlistment of her party with the name of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and allocation of ‘sword’ as its election symbol.

Meanwhile, the ECP has notified 126 returning district officers (RDOs), 425 returning officers (ROs) and 708 assisting returning officers (AROs) for conducting the elections.

There will only be one DRO, two returning and four assisting returning officers in Islamabad. Upto 36 DRO, 149 ROs and 307 AROs will conduct elections in Punjab while Sindh will be supervised by 27 DROs, 64 ROs and 130 AROs. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will get 24 DROs, 133 ROs and 145 AROs. For Fata, 8 DROs, 12 ROs and 23 AROs have been notified. According to the ECP notifications some 30 DROs, 65 ROs and 99 AROs will perform duty during elections in Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2013.