Alleged rigging in 2013 polls: 167 election petitions against 405 complaints disposed of

Seven months since the election tribunals were set up, 167 elections related petitions have been disposed of against 405 complaints of alleged poll rigging in the 2013 general elections. The independent candidates filed the most petitions across the country (94) while party-wise candidates of three main stream political parties in the National Assembly filed the major chunk of petitions - Pakistan Muslim League-N 64, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf 55 and Pakistan Peoples Party 47.
The largest share of the petitions was filed in Punjab (45 percent) with the most being filed in Lahore (43), followed by Faisalabad (27), Multan (16) and Bahawalpur (15). Pakistan People's Party returned candidates were nominated in 47 petitions, mostly in Sindh - 24 petitions in Sukkur and 21 in Hyderabad.
An official of the ECP told Business Recorder that it was a wrong perception that election tribunals are not taking quick decisions on the petition. "Most of the petitions were referred to 14 election tribunals after October 2013 as ECP itself took three months to hear the petition before referring to the tribunals", he added. The official maintained that the election tribunals have till first week of February to dispose off all the pending petitions relating to election disputes. Five election tribunals were appointed in Punjab and three each in the other provinces on June 3.
The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) observed that the current speed of tribunals may delay decisions on several petitions given the 996 adjournments of more than 7 days having been recorded, whereas election laws and ECP directions urge tribunals to hear petitions on day to day basis and do not allow an adjournment for more than seven days.
The law requires the tribunals to decide the cases within 120 days, but this has never happened in the electoral history of the country. The political parties are expecting that the cases would be adjudicated upon within the stipulated period as the tribunals comprise former judges who hear the cases on day-to-day basis. At one stage, a decision was taken to double the number of election tribunals, but keeping in view the fact that the number of complaints was lower than expected, the plan was dropped, the official said.
Only two of the total three tribunals in Sindh have reached the stage of ordering biometric verification of voters in around eight constituencies in Karachi and Sukkur. The rest of the 12 tribunals have not even reached the stage where they find it appropriate to order biometric verification of voters in any of the cases assigned to them; this was by the time they were expected to dispose of all the cases.
The tribunal in Karachi was the first to order verification of thumb impressions of voters in two constituencies. The reports of the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) both in NA-256 and 258 were revealing. The two reports not only disclosed that the magnetic ink which was supposed to be used to identify the cases of impersonation was somehow not used in both the constituencies, but also pointed out various other irregularities which leave no doubt that the polling staff allowed thousands of people to cast multiple votes.