Judicial Commission on Elections Rigging

 A silver lining had started shimmering when the govt. negotiating team was reported to have agreed to accept 5 out of the 6 points of TIP agenda. The most important issue – Rigging in the Elections – was resolved by appointing a three member judicial commission to look into the rigging allegations of 2013 elections. However, the MNL legal wizards introduced the term ‘institutional and organised rigging’ the very next day and want the judicial commission to enquire in it only instead of the mutually agreed ‘general rigging’ in the elections.  The PTI stance had been all along that as the elections had been rigged, any govt. coming into being on the basis of such rigged elections was not a legitimate or a bonafide govt.  But now by confining the judicial commission to enquire into ‘institutional or organised rigging’ only, the entire mandate of the commission is changed.  Naturally the MNL govt. will find an easy ! escape and plead strongly that as they were not in the govt. when the elections were held how could they be blamed for the ‘organised’  rigging.  On the other hand, if the commission were to find out whether any general rigging had taken place in the elections, it would have found plenty of evidence saying so.  And by inference it could have proven that the MNL was benefitted (illegally) by such general rigging. That would have compelled MNS to resign on moral grounds.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)