ISLAMABAD: The mystery surrounding the unusual delay in the issuance of the signed verdict of the Toshakhana reference against Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared to have deepened on Saturday after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) failed, for the second consecutive day, to issue the verified version of its own order.
Questions are being raised over continuous delay in the issuance of the verdict on the pretext of ailment of one of the ECP members, who, till the filing of this report on Saturday night, was yet to sign the order.
“Why is the ECP sitting on the written order? What is being cooked now?” questioned PTI Secretary General Asad Umar in a tweet.
Another PTI Imran Ismail in his tweet alleged: “The campaign launched by PDM’s allied body ECP is shameful—something is seriously wrong that’s why there is prolonged delay in the issuance of verdict—this is total dishonesty—the chief election commissioner is waiting for the verdict to be written from London or Bilawal House—the nation rejects these decisions altogether,”.
“I wonder why ECP is not issuing the detailed order. My understanding is that one member has not signed it yet. If so, how can an incomplete body announce an order? This in itself amounts to patent illegality,” tweeted PTI senator and Imran’s counsel in Toshakhana case Barrister Ali Zafar on Friday.
Requesting anonymity, a retired senior ECP official questioned the rationale behind issuing the Toshakhana verdict, when, according to ECP, one of its members is seriously ill and unable to sign the verdict.
Toshakhana reference: ECP disqualifies PTI chief Imran Khan
“The way this verdict has been issued in haste in the absence of a member raises serious questions,” he remarked. The ex-ECP official also questioned why this verdict was not issued before the chairman PTI contested by-elections on seven National Assembly seats and won six of them.
“The ECP reserved this verdict in September. This means it decided to disqualify the PTI chief last month but even then it allowed him to contest the by-elections this month. Now, unless this verdict is overturned by the superior courts, by-elections would be required to be held again on all those seats that the chairman PTI won. This is something extremely suspicious,” he stated.
On delay in the signed Toshakhana case verdict, the ECP officials informed the media that ECP member from Punjab Babar Hassan Bharwana was suffering from dengue and could not sign the verdict due to his poor health.
Bharwana had to be hospitalised and was unable to carry out his official responsibilities on Friday, the officials said, adding that he was reported to be ill on Saturday, as well.
The officials have denied that there is “anything else” contributing to delay in the issuance of the verdict.
Rumours are afloat since Friday that some ECP members were “pressured” by “certain powerful quarters” to sign the verdict against Khan and the ECP member Punjab resisted this pressure and decided not to sign the verdict.
The ECP officials are dismissing these rumours.
Only two pages of the verdict, that is believed to be of 36 pages, were provided to the media by the ECP on Friday when the verdict was announced. The extracts obtained from these two pages mainly suggest that Khan has been disqualified from his parliamentary members under Article 63(1) (p) of the constitution for filing “false” and “incorrect” statement of assets and liabilities with the ECP for the year 2020-21.
The ECP’s five-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and comprising Nisar Ahmed Durrani, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, Babar Bharwana and Justice Ikramullah Khan (Retried) heard this case and authored the verdict. Barring Bharwana, all the other four electoral officials have signed the verdict.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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