Poll rigging probe: No extra ballots printed after May 7, says ex-Punjab poll chief

Counsels for PML-N and ECP cross-examine Masood Anwar, who oversaw the 2013 polls in the province

ISLAMABAD:

The person who supervised the 2013 general elections in Punjab has said that the quantity of ballot papers were printed according to the demand of returning officers (ROs) and no additional ballots were printed after May 7, 2013.

The former election commissioner of Punjab Mehboob Anwar told the commission probing rigging allegations that staff of the judiciary was working with ROs and DROs and ballot papers were directly collected by the representatives of the returning officers.

The counsels for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) cross-examined Anwar as the three-judge commission headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk resumed hearing on Monday.



During the cross-examination, Anwar stated that there was no complaint against the staff of ECP, which was deputed at the printing presses. Likewise, there was no complaint against any DRO in the province. On the query of PML-N’s counsel, Anwar stated that he had not attended the meeting where former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had addressed DROs and ROs on April 7, 2013.

He also claimed that the deliveries of election material in 148 constituencies were completed on May 10, 2013. The hearing of case is adjourned until Tuesday (today).

Meanwhile, the ECP has also submitted the report of Anwar, wherein he had rebutted the rigging allegations levelled by PTI chairman Imran Khan on August 11, 2014. The copy of the report is available with The Express Tribune. The report said that the allegations regarding the printing of additional quantity of ballot papers from private press was out of the question. Army was deployed at the Securities Printing Press Karachi and the Printing Corporation of Pakistan, Islamabad and nobody could enter or exit from these state owned presses without body search by the army personnel.

“Army personnel deployed at duty may also confirm as how much ballot were dispatched to the representatives of ROs and DROs,” it said.

Regarding the hiring of skilled printing press labour, ex-election commissioner of Punjab states that on
May 7, 2013, Fazlur Rehman, Manager, Printing Corporation of Pakistan, informed him that all the ballot papers were printed but their delivery would not be possible on due date, as the serial numbers were not embossed and binding was not complete due to the shortage of staff, therefore, he requested to provide skilled labour from the local market.

“As many as 89 writ petitions calling in question the role of the ROs were filed by the aggrieved parties in the Lahore High Court and same were heard and decided by the full bench of high court,” the report noted.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2015.