ISLAMABAD: A day before the scheduled hearing of the controversial Daska by-election case, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) furnished a geo-fencing report before the Supreme Court, showing that 20 presiding officers (POs) adopted a different route to reach the office of returning officer (RO) after polling on Feb 19.

A three-judge SC bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial will resume on Thursday (today) the hearing of an appeal filed by PTI candidate Ali Asjad Malhi challenging the ECP’s Feb 25 decision to order re-election in the constituency NA-75, Sialkot (Daska tehsil).

At the last hearing on March 25, the Supreme Court had ordered the ECP to postpone the schedule for holding election in the contentious constituency on April 10.

ECP says location of 10 POs was traced to a suspicious place after Daska by-poll

In the fresh report, the ECP said that following sudden disappearance of the 20 POs after polling, the commission obtained the footprint of their mobile phone locations on Feb 20 at 2am from the Pakistan Telecommu­nication Authority (PTA). The location of 10 POs was traced out to the same suspicious place, the report said, adding that an alternative route was adopted by the POs which took them suspiciously long to reach the specified office mentioned within the scheme.

However, the report is silent about the exact suspicious location of the POs who, according to the ECP’s claim, went missing with polling bags containing ballot papers.

As per the scheme, the POs were required to get themselves registered with the ECP’s mobile phone channel created by the RO. Every presiding officer was required to prepare Form-45, take its snapshot and transmit it electronically on the ECP’s mobile phone channel under Section 13(2) of the Elections Act 2017.

The ECP had shared mobile phone numbers of 20 POs with the PTA, asking it to provide call detail record of the phone numbers.

The ECP pleaded before the apex court that the fresh report was vital for just determination of the controversy during the hearing of the appeal.

On Feb 25, ECP had decided to hold re-election in the entire constituency on March 18 after suspicions that the results of the Feb 19 by-poll might have been falsified. The decision was given on an application by PML-N candidate Nosheen Iftikhar. Later, the ECP extended re-election date to April 10.

The ECP had written a letter to PTA Chairman retired Maj Gen Amir Azeem Bajwa on Feb 26 with a request to provide tracking detail of the 20 POs, i.e. location and tracking using their mobile phone numbers from 8pm on Feb 19 to 7am on Feb 20. In return, the PTA provided the mobile phone location of the POs to the ECP.

At the last hearing, advocate Salman Akram Raja, representing PML-N’s Nosheen Iftikhar, had contended that it was a serious matter that 20 POs, who were being escorted by police and carrying polling bags, went missing. What perception the disappearance of these election officers created which ultimately vitiated the entire election process, he wondered.

The counsel had argued that the 20 POs had not just lost their way because they were escorted by police and that their mobile phones and wireless sets of the policemen escorting them were shut off.

To substantiate his claim, the counsel had also cited the ECP’s Feb 20 press release expressing its helplessness and saying the administrative hierarchy was non-cooperative and highlighting that the presiding officers appeared in the morning the other day along with polling bags.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2021