Judicial Commission Verdict; Operation Successful, Patient Died By Abdul Salam Dadabhoy

Elections 2013 are estimated, to be the most rigged elections in the history of Pakistan. Having said that, a logical question is; has any election in Pakistan ever been fair and free? The answer to this is in the negative, for nearly all of them, except one. So why do elections of 2013 have to be labeled as the most rigged? Simply because the senior most individual, of the senior most Judicial Institution, was and is still alleged to be involved, primarily in the design and execution of the engineered polls and till most recently in the safeguard of its flaws. From a common and lay man point of view, witnessed personally by those who came out to vote, as well as seen on TV channels and on social media, the scale of rigging was both extensive and massive. No one dare deny the above fact, as all major political parties also have accepted it to be a massively rigged election. Appointment of Returning Officers and interaction, coordination and liaison with them, was not supposed to be done by the Supreme Court Chief Justice. It was solely and wholly the jurisdiction of the Election Commission of Pakistan, which was encroached upon, as has also been stated by the Ex Chief Election Commissioner Justice Retired Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, while expressing his helplessness. The then care taker set up of Punjab also has confessed to have lost control weeks before the elections, as having passed it on to those who were pulling the strings. All these details have been discussed at many forums, on a number of occasions, including the floor of the Parliament, when many well known individuals like Aitzaz Ahsan etc admitted the details of the massive rigging. Mr Asif Ali Zardari openly termed it as a Returning Officers Election. But only Pakistan Tehreek Insaf being the biggest victim, had the guts to pursue the matter, openly and vigorously demanded an audit of the controversial constituencies and started and sustained a sit in for 126 days. Anyways, the much talked about Judicial Commission was formed, the first of its kind, ever in the history of Pakistan, to probe election misconduct and irregularities. Cheers to the Dharna (sit in) participants, the country wide shutter down strikes and to all those who physically, financially, directly or indirectly participated therein. PTI legal team prepared the case, filed it, submitted evidences, argued the matter, did their best, but still lost, temporarily though. It is not Pakistan Tehreek Insaf, or the people of Pakistan, who have lost in this battle. It is in fact the status quo, which has lost in the long run, because more awareness of and hatred against it has emerged as a result. What has also been concluded by the intelligentsia is that the cancer is much more deep rooted than was imagined previously and cancers cannot be treated without major surgery, multiple at times. The Judicial Commission should not have been formed to start with. And when formed, why were representatives of major intelligence agencies not taken on board as was originally conceived? So much evidential material was available on electronic and social media, which was sufficient to nullify the polls. All said and done, what a mockery has been made of the entire proceedings. Issue of forms 14 and 15, missing magnetic ink, voters thumb verification, missing counter foils, printing of extra ballot papers and open un-sealed ballot bags and boxes, all issues have been ignored and a clean report of findings has been handed down, which although has been accepted by Pakistan Tehreek Insaf on the face of it, but has not been digested by the people at large. Anyone who has read the Judicial Commission findings would find it very hard to believe, that one author (whose sanity is not questionable) has authored the verdict. It seems as if the explanations and back ground were penned down by one writer, later left to be concluded by another author, someone totally different. Funny as it may seem, that while and after accepting all irregularities, the election has been termed as an indicator of public mandate. Pakistan Tehreek Insaf has the right to accept the Judicial Commission verdict, being a major player and party in the controversy, but a more prudent approach would have been, to consult the public at large, which is their strength, before such an open acceptance was announced, as PTI is a true and genuine representative, of the peoples’ aspirations and mandate. More so, because the triggering factor to pursue the creation of the Judicial Commission was not only audit of the Elections in question, but over all electoral reforms and an effort to ensure fair and free elections in the future. As far as popularity, outlook and exposure of the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf is concerned, it must carefully re-consider and re-visit its’ policy of allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry, to join PTI, after breaking their respective affiliations and associations, from different political parties, as Pakistani politicians are quite used, to seasonally changing loyalties, as one changes clothes. Emphasis and reliance hence must be placed on quality than quantity. Pakistan Tehreek Insaf was founded on ideological lines, by people who were and are by and large honest, educated, credible and clean. This hall mark is what actually differentiates and distinguishes it from other status quo parties. Such entrants will as Trojans, try to do more damage than good to its reputation. However coming back to the Judicial Commission findings, all concerned have done and played their individual and collective best roles and as is said ‘’in difficulty lays opportunity, lessons hopefully will be learned and bigger and better opportunities will come up. On a concluding note, one cannot resist to share a comment by senior journalist Haroon Rasheed, which means that the Judicial Commission verdict implies, that it is okay to consume water from a reservoir adulterated and contaminated by filth. My goodness, how low is low? Never the less, all is still not lost, if an authentic census takes place, followed by electoral reforms, sooner than later.

Abdul Salam Dadabhoy.

1 August 2015.

by webmaster@insaf.pk (tkiadmin)