ISLAMABAD: It was widely hailed as the first time Pakistan saw an elected government pass the helm of command over to another duly elected one. But one year on, much of the rosiness seems to have faded. The blame-game between various political parties continues and few appear to be satisfied with the electoral exercise of May 11 last year, its outcome and the pace at which election tribunals are adjudicating upon poll complaints.

The major political parties continue to hurl charges of electoral fraud at one another. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz faces charges of rigging in Punjab, the Pakistan Peoples Party in the interior of Sindh, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in urban Sindh, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and nationalist parties in Balochistan. The PTI has already given a call for a protest rally on this anniversary — but other parties have decided to stay away from what they perceive as an attempt to derail democracy.

PPP Secretary General and former Punjab governor Sardar Latif Khosa told Dawn his party believed that the whole election process in Punjab was manipulated — that it was not limited to the four constituencies the PTI wanted re-elections in.

He alleged that the entire bureaucratic apparatus in the province was biased and his party had not even been allowed to run its election campaign. “However, despite serious reservations over the electoral process, we do not want to resort to an agitation, as it can provide an opportunity to non-state actors as well as undemocratic forces,” he remarked.

Asked about the allegations against his own party of rigging polls in Sindh, Mr Khosa said the PPP was ready to face any legal challenge and claimed that his party was a victim of rigging, even in Sindh. He cited the example of the victory of PPP stalwart Aftab Shabaan Mirani as a result of recounting on 21 polling stations in Shikarpur. His view is that the elections were manipulated so that the PPP was restricted to Sindh, the PTI to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PML-N to Punjab and nationalists to Balochistan.

In the same vein, the PML-Q’s Kamil Ali Agha alleged that massive rigging was carried out in all constituencies across the country, claiming 70 to 80pc bogus voting. “It was a targeted operation meant to distribute power in all four provinces,” he remarked, alleging that the returning officers were part and parcel of the ‘operation’ and that this happened with the consent of the then chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who finalised the list of returning officers.

Mr Agha said that none of the 16 election petitions filed by his party’s ticket-holders had been decided yet, pointing out that legislation meant to reform the electoral system was pending in parliament and emphasising the need for the government to come forth with a clear stance.

However, the information secretary of the ruling PML-N, Mushahidullah Khan, rejected accusations against the party’s involvement in rigging in Punjab, saying it would have been impossible in the presence of a caretaker set-up that had been installed by the PPP. Moreover, he said, most of the postings and transfers before the polls took place in Punjab where even the patwaris were changed.

Mr Khan added that it was true that every party had complaints about rigging and mismanagement, but international observers had declared the May 11 polls as the most credible in the country’s electoral history.

The MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi complained that his party was the victim of pre-poll rigging as extremist forces had prevented it from electioneering. “We were not provided a level playing field,” he said. “Our offices were attacked and even the party’s headquarters, Nine Zero, came under attack just before the elections.”

The MQM leader criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for not taking notice of the huge spending on electioneering through the print and electronic media by various parties. “The ECP took notice of billboards and posters, but turned a blind eye to television commercials and newspaper advertisements,” he said.

Senator Zahid Khan of the Awami National Party (ANP) also complained that his party had not been allowed to run its election campaign by terrorists. He also alleged that while on the one hand the PTI was making a hue and cry over rigging in Punjab, on the other the party itself had been the biggest beneficiary of rigging in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

No party seems to be taking a different line. The JUI-F alleges that the PTI was allowed to win the polls, particularly in Peshawar, Kohat and Mardan divisions where, in most of the polling stations, the number of votes polled was more than the number of registered voters.

“In some cases, the rejected votes are greater than the victory margin,” said JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai, adding that manipulations in Form XIV (Statement of the Count) were also evident.

Poll-related complaints

The representatives of political parties are also critical of the snail-paced progress on poll-related complaints.

The 14 election tribunals established by the ECP to redress post-election disputes have failed to dispose of over one-fourth of the petitions.

The tribunals, constituted on June 3 last year, started receiving petitions from the ECP the same month. The election results were officially notified on May 22, 2013, following which the candidates were given 45 days to submit their petitions. The ECP received a total of 409 petitions. Out of these, 25 petitions were dismissed by the ECP and the remaining 384 were forwarded by it to the election tribunals.

Most of the referred petitions were moved by contesting candidates, while three petitions were filed by voters.

The Lahore tribunal, being the busiest, received 56 petitions, highlighting the high prevalence of result-related disputes. The Peshawar tribunal received 40 petitions, followed by Faisalabad with 39 petitions. Collectively, the tribunals in Lahore, Peshawar and Faisalabad received nearly one-third of the total election disputes. The Karachi tribunal received 30 petitions.

As there is no time limit for the ECP to dismiss or forward petitions, some cases remained pending for more than 120 days. The Lahore tribunal received at least two petitions as late as on Jan 29, 2014.

Independent candidates topped the list of those taking legal recourse against alleged wrongdoings in the electoral exercise by filing as many as 99 petitions. Among the political parties, the PML-N filed the maximum (66) poll-related petitions, followed by PTI (58), PPP (50), JUI-F (27), PML-Functional (18), PML-Q (16), Jamaat-i-Islami (13), ANP and Balochistan National Party (7 each) and JUI-Niazi (5).

The PML-N, the party with the highest number of seats in the National Assembly, had the highest number of petitions filed against its winning candidates. Out of the total of 384 petitions, 138 were filed against winning candidates belonging to the PML-N, mostly in Punjab (116) with 49 of them in Lahore alone. The PPP’s returned candidates were nominated in 49 petitions, mostly in Sindh.

The PTI’s candidates were nominated in 30 petitions, most of which were filed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (13 in Peshawar, five in Abbottabad and three in Dera Ismail Khan). Winners of the JUI-F were nominated in 19 petitions (mostly in Loralai, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar) while independent candidates were collectively nominated in 78 petitions. And, as many as 22 petitions were filed against MQM candidates.