Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawyer Abdul Hafeez Pirzada informed the General Elections Inquiry Commission on Monday that he will decide whether the PTI chief Imran Khan should record his statement before the commission or not after receipt of Form-15. A three-member commission led by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk has been probing allegations levelled by almost all parties against each other about alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.
The Chief Justice said that the PTI lawyer would have to elaborate reasons before the commission as to why he wants to present Imran Khan as a witness. Pirzada informed the court that Form-15 may also be received by Monday evening and then it would be decided if Imran Khan will record his testimony before the commission. In the last week, Pirzada had requested the commission to allow him present the PTI chief as a witness before the commission.
The PML-Q lawyer has been directed by the commission to present all the witnesses in the court today (Tuesday) while the Jamaat-i-Islami is asked to present its witnesses before the commission on Wednesday. The Chief Justice said that the process of cross-examinations of witness and submission of all the record regarding alleged rigging by the PTI has been completed. District election commissioner Lahore, Shabbar Abbas Bukhari was cross-examined by the PTI, Election Commission and PML-N lawyers.
Bukhari admitted before the commission that 30 percent extra ballots of the total registered votes were printed. He said the number of registered voters in NA-125 was 429,115 while the Returning Officer had demanded 500,000 ballots for the constituency. "The demand for extra ballots in the constituency was unusual .... the unused ballots in the PP-155, PP-156 and NA-125 were returned to the election commission after the voting day," he said.
Additional Secretary Election Commission Sher Afgan was also cross-examined in the commission. He said the election commission has not reviewed the number of ballot papers printed during the elections as a total of 181,747,000 ballot papers were printed for the general elections 2013. He said that Returning Officers and provincial election commissioners decide about the number of ballot papers to be printed for different constituencies. "Returning Officers distribute the ballot papers to Presiding Officers in each constituency," he said. About the magnetic ink, Sher Afgan said the magnetic ink provided by the PCSIR was used in the elections and samples of it were also sent to the National Database and Registration Authority for examination. This was the 23rd meeting of the enquiry commission and it was supposed to complete its investigations into the alleged rigging within 45 days but failed to do so.
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