All major political parties, with the exception of MQM, have announced their decision to appear before the judicial commission tasked to probe allegations of systematic rigging in 2013 general elections.
Political parties that have announced their intent to become party to the commission's work include Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Awami National Party (ANP), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) of Afaq Ahmad.
The judicial commission, formed on the request of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the main complainant, is challenging the mandate of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) by accusing it of seizing power through systematic rigging. The PML-N has been forced to take the extreme position of claiming no rigging took place though its leadership maintains that irregularities in the election process did take place however they cannot be mistaken for systematic rigging.
PTI vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while talking to Business Recorder, said that the party's legal team would submit an application to the commission today (Wednesday) to formally become a party to the case.
"We've already collected evidence as to how PML-N came to power through systematic rigging," he said, adding it is up to the commission to investigate it in light of the proof that would be provided by the party.
The ruling PML-N has also formed its legal team to appear before the judicial commission and sources said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved the names of Khalid Anwar, Makhdoom Ali Khan and Khawaja Haris as the party's legal experts.
The PPP, the second largest political party, is taking up rigging in three constituencies before the commission: (i) Bushra Aitzaz (NA-124) Lahore. Aitzaz Ahsan has already issued a white paper, "how election was stolen in NA-124," on his wife's constituency wherein he details facts about the alleged rigging. "Seals of 107 polling bags out of 264 were broken, while 38 were not sealed at all," he claims in the white paper; (ii) former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf (NA-51 Gujjar Khan and (iii) Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad (NA-139 Kasur).
"We believe the 2013 general elections were systematically rigged and we've collected evidence to be presented by the party's legal team headed by Aitzaz Ahsan before the judicial commission," said Farhatullah Babar, PPP's spokesperson.
Babar said that the party would particularly take up the three constituencies - NA-124 Lahore, NA-51 Gujjar Khan and NA-139 Kasur before the commission but evidence is also being collected from other constituencies.
ANP, almost wiped out from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the general elections, maintains that the party was systematically kept away from politicking before the elections under a pre-poll rigging strategy. "We've submitted an application to the judicial commission and will present as to how some political parties, with sympathies for terrorists, were given a free field to campaign while we were threatened with terror attacks if we held a jalsa," said Senator Zahid Khan, the party spokesperson.
To a question, he said that the judicial commission has been given the mandate to also probe pre-poll riggings. "We believe that ANP was not given a level playing field", he maintained, accusing some political parties who had representation in the peace talks with the Taliban of enjoying support of the militants for "their soft spot for the Taliban". Liaqat Baloch of Jamaat-i-Islami said that the party would take up the issue of rigging in some constituencies of Karachi, Hyderabad and FATA. "We are continuously protesting against the rigging particularly in Karachi, as our election agents were forced to leave the polling stations on election-day, therefore we also boycotted the polling process in the city," he maintained.
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