ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday expressed its disappointment over the allegations raised by Prime Minister Imran Khan during his address to the nation, and added that it cannot make any amendments against the law.
In its declaration issued after the meeting to review the allegations leveled by the prime minister and the federal ministers, ECP stated that if anybody has reservations, the constitutional way is open for all.
“The Election Commission listens to everyone but fulfils its obligations only according to what is written in the law and the Constitution.”
“If the constitutional institutions continue to be ridiculed in this way, it is tantamount to their (government’s) weakness and not that of the ECP,” it added.
“It is a shocking matter that under the same staff in the same [election] under the same roof on the same day, [what they won] is acceptable and [what they lost] is unacceptable. Is this not open contradiction?” the commission questioned, adding: “The ECP rejects this.”
The meeting, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, was attended by the members of the ECP, secretary and the officials of the law wing. The returning officer (RO) of Islamabad briefed the participants about the Senate polls.
The meeting reviewed allegations of horse-trading leveled by PM Imran and the federal ministers, said sources, and added that the ECP will issue a declaration about the meeting.
The ECP statement read that if the electory body was willing to listen to recommendations, then it would just as well listen to complaints, but only if there would evidence to back to up. It advised the premier and the federal ministers not to “mudsling” at them.
The ECP said that the Senate elections were held according to the law and the Constitution and were conducted in a “good way”. It said that the statements and discussions that had come to the electoral body through media reports were “saddening”, especially statements made by “some members of the federal cabinet and specifically what the prime minister said in his address yesterday”.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi along with his cabinet fellows, Shibli Faraz and Fawad Chaudhry had lamented that the ECP was responsible to hold free and fair polls, however, it failed in performing its duty.
On Thursday, during his televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Imran had questioned the transparency of the Senate elections, saying that the ECP failed to conduct fair elections. PM Imran had said that the ECP did not take measures to ensure transparent polling and held it responsible for the illegal practice of buying and selling of votes as it did not introduce traceable ballots.
During his address, the premier had called out the electoral body for “protecting those who made money by holding the Senate elections through secret ballot”.
Prime Minister Imran had said this a day after he had decided to take a vote of confidence following the ruling party suffered a setback when its candidate Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh lost a Senate seat from Islamabad to a joint candidate of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani.
The ECP, he said, could have employed the latest technology in order to know who the turncoats in the Senate elections were.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former finance minister Ishaq Dar has urged the ECP to initiate contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Imran.
In a tweet on Friday, Dar said: “There was no complaint when Imran Niazi kept hiding behind the ECP in foreign funding case for six years.”
He stated that there was no complaint when they got elected Senate chairman with 20 extra votes in ECP’s presence. Now, Dar said, they were raising hue and cry against the ECP after Federal Minister for Finance Shaikh was defeated in the Senate election.
The former finance minister said that the ECP should under Section 10 of Election Act 2017 launch contempt of court proceedings.
“The Election Commission has damaged the democracy by holding Senate elections through secret ballot,” the Prime Minister said. “Why the ECP told the top court that the Senate elections should be held through the secret ballot?” the prime minister questioned.
Furthermore, it emerged on Friday that the ECP was moved in order to stop the notification of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senior leader Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani’s success in the Senate election.
Separately, Advocate Azhar Siddique moved the ECP and maintained in his petition that action should be taken against PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and Ali Haider Gillani – Yousaf Raza Gillani’s son – over rigging.
The plaintiff argued that Ali Haider Gillani’s video and Maryam’s statement are proofs of rigging. He demanded to lodge cases against both individuals under Sections 167, 168 and 170 of the Election Act.
The claimant questioned that why latest technology was not used in the elections despite the Supreme Court’s (SC) orders, and termed it as a contempt of court. He demanded inquiry into the matter.
In this regard, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Sadaqat Ali Abbasi, while reacting to Shaikh’s loss, has said that it was not PDM, but “money [that] had won” the senate elections.
He blamed the ECP for having failed to hold transparent elections and said, after the emergence of Ali Haider’s “confession”, that the video was true and that it was the ECP’s responsibility to declare Gillani ineligible to contest elections and file a reference against him.
Talking to a private news channel on Friday, he said that it was necessary to stop all such mafias to fulfill their nefarious designs, and the ECP’s role in that regard was crucial.
He maintained that beauty of democracy was in holding of transparent elections and only independent institutions could strengthen the democratic process.
Sadaqat said that “money” was used in senate elections and ECP was bound to obey SC orders for holding transparent corruption free elections. The apex court had also urged ECP to use modern technology to ensure transparency in the elections but the commission did not follow and organised the polls as per traditional way, he mentioned.
He also criticised that opposition is celebrating victory for Senate election which they won with the spending of ill gotten money belong to the poor people of Pakistan which is shameful for them.
Actually Imran Khan is blaming his failures on the Election Commission. Imran Khan, who came to power with the assistance of the army, could not get the support of the army in these elections and the true will of the people emerged, demonstrating that the people are not on Imran Khan’s side. Imran is making baseless allegations against the Election Commission as a result of his rage. After Imran Khan’s ascension to power, Pakistan’s economy has been in free fall, and the people’s standard of living has plummeted. At the same time, Pakistan’s reputation has deteriorated significantly on a global scale. Therefore, people have voted against Imran in these elections. But Imran cannot digest this defeat and is doing such nonsense.