Electoral inquiry: Polling bags to be opened from today

Form XV certified copies will be sent to the judicial commission by 8th.

LAHORE: As many as 13 additional district and sessions judges have been tasked with reopening bags of polling record for the district from Monday to obtain certified copies of Form XV on directions of the judicial commission probing alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.

The judges, led by Additional District and Sessions Judge Chaudhary Tariq Javed, will re-open polling bags at the Central Model School. The judges Nadeem Ansari, Tariq Khursheed Khawaja, Zafar Iqbal Tarar and Naeem Abbas, among, others have been tasked with dispatching certified copies of Form XV to the judicial commission by June 7. June 8 has been fixed as the deadline for submission of the copies.

The judicial commission has directed district judges to open polling bags from their respective districts. The commission’s order says that judges will obtain copies of Form XV, pertaining to national and provincial assembly constituencies in their districts. In case a constituency is spread over more than one district, the senior district judge should perform the task.

After inviting opinions from the counsel representing various political parties, the commission had decided to obtain copies of Form XV from bags kept at treasuries on behalf of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The political parties had agreed that the task should be assigned to district judges.

The order said that judicial officers would be assisted by the respective district election commissioners and their staff. The order says only white, khaki and blue bags containing the election material could be opened and no other bag would be touched. “Photostat copies of Form XV at all polling stations must be prepared and certified by district judges,” the order says.

Forms for each constituency will be packed in separate packets and sent to the commission. In case the form is found missing or the seal of the bags is found broken at any polling station, the judges should report it accordingly. For Tribal Areas, the task will be assigned to political agents.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2015.