ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission investigating allegations of large-scale malpractices in the 2013 general elections formally started on Wednesday recording testimony of witnesses produced by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

Two official witnesses conceded on oath before the commission that a request had been made by the then Punjab election commissioner to employ 200 men from Urdu Bazaar in Lahore, but the purpose of their recruitment was not mentioned.

Javed Iqbal, who was the chief secretary during the caretaker government in Punjab, was the first to record his testimony.

Know more: PTI has no credible evidence to prove poll rigging: PML-N

He was cross-examined by Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Shahid Hamid and Salman Akram Raja, who are representing the PTI, the PML-N and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), respectively.

Secretary to the commission Mohammad Hamid Ali administered oath to witnesses.

All the witnesses, including former caretaker chief minister of Punjab Najam Sethi, also a witness in the PTI list, were asked to vacate the courtroom when Mr Pirzada said that when the evidence of a witness was being recorded propriety demanded that other witnesses should not be in the room.

‘Request was made by Punjab EC to employ 200 men from Urdu Bazaar’

Javed Iqbal said former additional chief secretary of the caretaker government Rao Iftikhar had conveyed to him the request made by then provincial election commissioner Anwar Mehboob on the day of polling and the reason cited was that the ECP needed support. But he could not recall whether Urdu Bazaar was mentioned from where the people had to be employed.

He denied that any extra election material had ever been delivered to polling stations on the polling day. Generally, he deposed, the election material had been supplied to the ECP with the help of the army and the Punjab government.

Mr Iqbal said his first reaction to the request was to find out whether the caretaker chief minister had been informed about the matter. But he was told that the request had been conveyed through the chief minister’s principal secretary.

He said Rao Iftikhar had told him that commissioners of Lahore and Rawalpindi had been duly informed about the manpower requirement.

Answering a question, Mr Iqbal said he thought such requests were normal because the Punjab administration was extending support to the ECP and accepted that he had appeared in a TV talk show after the elections, along with Mr Iftikhar and anchorperson Hamid Mir. He was asked by the host of the show, Naseem Zehra, why the services of Shahid Khan, Tariq Bajwa, Aslam Komboyo and retired Capt Arif Nadeem, the secretaries of home department, finance, elementary education and health, respectively, had been retained by the Punjab government.

He said the administration did not want to change guard because of the secretaries’ experience in tackling the threat of terrorism, preparation of provincial budget and taking on serious challenges like dengue and measles.

Mr Iqbal admitted that the then chief minister had mentioned a request from the DFID (Department for International Development) to retain Aslam Komboyo. During the talk show, he said, the subject of printing of extra material did come up and he asked the host to direct the question to Mr Iftikhar.

He also admitted that ballot papers had been delivered just before the commencement of polling in some constituencies of Kotli Sattiyan, Kasur, Gujrat, Hafizabad. He said he was constantly in contact with the ECP and also protested over the delay because normally such material should have been provided three days before the election.

In reply to a question by Shahid Hamid, he admitted that he had spent most of his service career in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh as well as in federal ministries of water and power, Kashmir affairs and economic affairs.

Mr Iqbal was inducted into the Punjab administration following the appointment of Najam Sethi as caretaker chief minister, but after the elections he was repatriated to the federal government on his request.

He said Arif Nadeem continued his service in the Punjab government after the elections, adding that Dr Yasmin Rasheed, a sister of Mr Nadeem, was a PTI candidate against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He said that to the best of his knowledge Punjab bureaucracy had not made any attempt to manipulate the elections.

Rao Iftikhar, the second witness, gave almost the same answers except that he was the contact person between the ECP and the Punjab government. He admitted that on urgent matters he used to take his own decisions first and then seek concurrence of the chief minister. Most of the approval was taken verbally and he did not record a memorandum in all cases.

Mr Iftikhar said he had been asked to provide 200 persons with the knowhow of printing. But he was confronted with a video clip to establish that he did mention the name of Urdu Bazaar in the talk show.

He said he was not aware whether or not the persons had been employed.

The commission will record the testimony of the third witness, Punjab’s former election commissioner Anwar Mehboob, on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2015

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