. PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD: The media was fixated on Bani Gala on Sunday where PTI’s top decision-making body was in session. The meeting was to decide whether or not to return to the assemblies after the government acquiesced to the party’s demand for a judicial inquiry into alleged rigging in the 2013 elections.
Emerging from the meeting, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi told journalists that the party’s core committee has decided against sending lawmakers back to the assemblies till the time the government officially notified a proposed judicial commission to investigate the alleged vote fraud.
The core committee meeting came two days after the ruling PML-N and the PTI agreed to the scope and makeup of the judicial commission. “Our demand for a judicial commission has been met but we will take a decision on returning to the assemblies after the government issues a formal notification,” Qureshi told journalists on Sunday.
PTI lawmakers had resigned en masse from all but Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in August during the party’s unprecedented three-month-long dharna in the federal capital. However, the resignations are pending approval since then.
Qureshi said that negotiators from the two parties had agreed in their December 27 meeting on the formation of a judicial commission but an agreement on the terms of reference (ToRs) eluded them for nearly three months.
Justifying his party’s demand for a judicial inquiry into vote fraud allegations, the PTI leader said transparency in all general elections held since 1970 had been questionable, while all political parties had reservations about the 2013 polls.
Asked about a timeframe, Qureshi said: “We wish the commission completed its work in 45 days, but it is free and can take as much time as needed for the job.”
Elected bodies dissolved
In its Sunday’s meeting, the core committee also accepted the recommendations of a commission headed by Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed over complaints of rigging in last year’s intra-party elections and dissolved all elected bodies of the party.
The commission had recommended the PTI leadership dissolve all bodies, committees and offices of the party, including the core committee and the central executive committee. The commission was formed by party chairman Imran Khan to investigate complaints about the intra-party poll held in December 2012.
After dissolving all elected bodies of his party, Imran nominated the sacked office-bearers to their elected offices until a schedule for fresh intra-party elections is issued.
The core committee decided that an election commission would be formed as well as other necessary committees to finalise modalities for membership and elections. The election commission will recommend to the party chief the time period required for holding intra-party elections after assessing the administrative and constitutional requirements.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 23rd, 2015.
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