ISLAMABAD: Amid claims of rigging from opposition parties following the July 25 elections and questions about transparency from various think tanks, forms that appear to be from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have been recovered from a tandoor in the capital.

ECP spokesperson Nadeem Qasim has claimed that these forms were a conspiracy against the commission and part of an effort to make the general election disputed.

Islamabad residents were shocked on Sunday when they bought bread from a tandoor in F-6 and received them wrapped in forms and other documents apparently issued by the ECP for use in the elections.

Capital resident finds Form-46, other documents while buying naan at F-6 market

Mohammad Imran told Dawn he was buying naan in Farooqia Market and was asked by the person running the tandoor to pick up some paper to wrap up the naan.

“I picked up a paper and was surprised to see the word ‘election’ on it. After reaching the conclusion that the form was used in the elections I decided to check the other papers and was shocked to see they were used for the recent elections in different parts of Punjab,” he said.

“Some of the material was on training presiding and assistant presiding officers. There were a number of blank Form-46s among the papers; I initially thought those papers must be from the 2013 elections, but they were dated 2018. I am also aware this is the first time the Form-46 was used in the elections, so the documents were all from the recent elections,” he added.

He said some of the documents were questionnaires; the documents from various parts of Punjab, including Sialkot and Daska.

“I asked the person at the tandoor how those documents reached his shop. He said a scrap dealer had sold him the papers, and added that it was routine for him to buy papers for naan so he never looked at them,” he said.

The documents, available with Dawn, also appear to be from the recent elections. One is a form titled ‘Reporting Format for Election Training’ dated July 9 that shows the number of male and female presiding and assistant presiding officers who attended the training.

Another document, used in Hafizabad, states that although training was held in a better environment there were no arrangements for a generator, and it was suggested that a generator be arranged.

However, the Form-46s were blank; these forms mention that they are used for ballot paper accounts. There is space on the forms to mention the names of provinces, constituencies and serial members for ballet papers.

A university faculty member who served as a presiding officer, requesting anonymity, said it was unfortunate that ECP documents were recovered from a shop in the capital.

But ECP spokesperson Mr Qasim said it was impossible to leak any ECP document.

“We have a proper standard operating procedure for all the stationery. After the election, all the stationery is kept for five years as it can be required at any time and even after that it is not sold to scrap dealers. According to the rules, all the stationery is given to a firm and the firm is bound to use the papers for recycling; those papers cannot be sold in the market,” he said.

When asked how the Form-46s and other stationery reached the tandoor, Mr Qasim said this was nothing but a conspiracy against the ECP.

“After the elections, on the first working day students did not find anything from their classrooms but the next day we received a number of complaints that students got ballot papers from the classrooms. I assume they were printed by private printers and were placed there to defame the ECP and make the elections disputed,” he said.

Mr Qasim said it was impossible that ECP forms would be leaked and claimed someone had placed the copied and faked forms to create controversy.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2018