Probe into rigging claims Government rejects PTI’s demand for commission
Alleges that Imran wants a favourable result
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE:
The government has thumbed its nose at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s new demand for a commission to probe into the allegations of rigging in the May 2013 general elections.
Imran wants the commission to include officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI).
Talking to The Express Tribune, Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid said Imran Khan’s wish list could not be fulfilled because the commission he envisaged was one that could tilt towards a favourable result.
“The composition of Imran’s proposed commission is illogical,” he said, ridiculing his choice of commission members.
Rashid pointed out that the government had already written a letter to the Supreme Court for creating a judicial commission but the PTI chief himself quit the talks with the government over the proposed body’s terms of reference (TORs).
The minister said the apex court would make its judicial commission and if the PTI agreed on the TORs then they would send it to the Supreme Court. “Only the SC’s judicial commission can probe into allegations of rigging and in this regard the government has written a letter to the chief justice,” he said.
“Imran should take issue of the TORs seriously so that we both should move forward with them to the SC to form a judicial commission,” he said.
He said the government would welcome the PTI if it resumed talks with the government.
“However, the objective and mandate of the talks will be the TORs for the judicial commission, which the SC will form and not any new commission,” he said, adding that government would not form the kind of commission that Imran Khan desired.
Earlier, talking to reporters after attending a ceremony held in connection with Iqbal Day in Lahore, Pervaiz Rashid had asked Imran Khan to “unshackle” his team of negotiators and allow them to hold talks with the government.
He said it was Imran Khan, who was responsible for suspending the process of talks. “We never ended the negotiations. Imran Khan did so while standing on a container in Islamabad,” he said.
Meanwhile, sources said the government and the PTI might resume their negotiations by mid-November. Sources in the PML-N said Imran Khan, who called on Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Sirajul Haq on November 5, had asked him to convince the government to come to negotiating table on a new agenda of the talks.
They said Sirajul Haq on November 7 met Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and conveyed to him the PTI’s fresh demand. PTI chief Imran Khan has assured Sirajul Haq that his party’s negotiators will resume talks with the government after November 15 on a new agenda, they claimed.
Sources said Sirajul Haq told Imran Khan that the government would not accept his new demand but Imran Khan asked him to convince the government anyway.
The PTI team is tasked to get announcement of either an independent commission or the SC’s commission with inclusion of the MI and the ISI officials.
The sources said the PTI’s team of negotiators might ask the government to appoint Justice (retd) Bhagwandas or any other mutually acceptable judge as the head of independent commission. The PTI will also suggested inclusion of its two MNAs – Shafqat Mehmood and Dr Arif Alvi – while Pakistan Peoples Party and the PML-N could also give names of their candidates.
They said the PTI chief Imran Khan had expressed his lack of confidence in the judiciary before Sirajul Haq and in his party meetings and this is the reason why he does not want the SC’s judicial commission.
Sirajul Haq, who conveyed Imran Khan’s message to the PML-N, is, however, still hopeful that some solution will be reached at the negotiating table, sources claimed.
Imran has also assured Sirajul Haq that if talks between the PML-N and the PTI succeeded he would call off his sit in at the November 30 rally in Islamabad. Sources in the PTI said Imran Khan’s November 30 call might put pressure on the government to accept some of the PTI’s proposals.
They said the PTI expects to gather 100,000 to 125,000 people on November 30 in Islamabad.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2014.
The government has thumbed its nose at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s new demand for a commission to probe into the allegations of rigging in the May 2013 general elections.
Imran wants the commission to include officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI).
Talking to The Express Tribune, Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid said Imran Khan’s wish list could not be fulfilled because the commission he envisaged was one that could tilt towards a favourable result.
“The composition of Imran’s proposed commission is illogical,” he said, ridiculing his choice of commission members.
Rashid pointed out that the government had already written a letter to the Supreme Court for creating a judicial commission but the PTI chief himself quit the talks with the government over the proposed body’s terms of reference (TORs).
The minister said the apex court would make its judicial commission and if the PTI agreed on the TORs then they would send it to the Supreme Court. “Only the SC’s judicial commission can probe into allegations of rigging and in this regard the government has written a letter to the chief justice,” he said.
“Imran should take issue of the TORs seriously so that we both should move forward with them to the SC to form a judicial commission,” he said.
He said the government would welcome the PTI if it resumed talks with the government.
“However, the objective and mandate of the talks will be the TORs for the judicial commission, which the SC will form and not any new commission,” he said, adding that government would not form the kind of commission that Imran Khan desired.
Earlier, talking to reporters after attending a ceremony held in connection with Iqbal Day in Lahore, Pervaiz Rashid had asked Imran Khan to “unshackle” his team of negotiators and allow them to hold talks with the government.
He said it was Imran Khan, who was responsible for suspending the process of talks. “We never ended the negotiations. Imran Khan did so while standing on a container in Islamabad,” he said.
Meanwhile, sources said the government and the PTI might resume their negotiations by mid-November. Sources in the PML-N said Imran Khan, who called on Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Sirajul Haq on November 5, had asked him to convince the government to come to negotiating table on a new agenda of the talks.
They said Sirajul Haq on November 7 met Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and conveyed to him the PTI’s fresh demand. PTI chief Imran Khan has assured Sirajul Haq that his party’s negotiators will resume talks with the government after November 15 on a new agenda, they claimed.
Sources said Sirajul Haq told Imran Khan that the government would not accept his new demand but Imran Khan asked him to convince the government anyway.
The PTI team is tasked to get announcement of either an independent commission or the SC’s commission with inclusion of the MI and the ISI officials.
The sources said the PTI’s team of negotiators might ask the government to appoint Justice (retd) Bhagwandas or any other mutually acceptable judge as the head of independent commission. The PTI will also suggested inclusion of its two MNAs – Shafqat Mehmood and Dr Arif Alvi – while Pakistan Peoples Party and the PML-N could also give names of their candidates.
They said the PTI chief Imran Khan had expressed his lack of confidence in the judiciary before Sirajul Haq and in his party meetings and this is the reason why he does not want the SC’s judicial commission.
Sirajul Haq, who conveyed Imran Khan’s message to the PML-N, is, however, still hopeful that some solution will be reached at the negotiating table, sources claimed.
Imran has also assured Sirajul Haq that if talks between the PML-N and the PTI succeeded he would call off his sit in at the November 30 rally in Islamabad. Sources in the PTI said Imran Khan’s November 30 call might put pressure on the government to accept some of the PTI’s proposals.
They said the PTI expects to gather 100,000 to 125,000 people on November 30 in Islamabad.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2014.