Last Night Discussion on Form-14 Verifications
By Moeed Pirzada
Discussion with Mudassar Rizvi & Fawad was a bit technical but very important to current political crisis and negotiations. What we all need to understand is that the fundamental, the most necessary election record for verification is Statement of Count called Form-14. This Form-14 (Statement of Count) when filled completely details the: Total Registered Voters at the Polling Stations, Male Vote, Female Vote, Vote Cast, Vote Rejected and Total Accepted Vote. Form 15 & 16 prepared by Returning Officers (RO) that give the total result of a Constituency as to who has won is only a simple addition of all Form-14’s received from all Polling Stations.
Each Constituency of National Assembly in Pakistan consisted of anywhere from 250-300 Polling Stations. Each Polling Station was headed by a Presiding Officer designated by Election Commission. Who and who were appointed by Election Commission is an essential record; these were mostly officers of Education Department or Agriculture Dept. or such other provincial govt departments. Their “signatures” and “thumb impressions” are not only part of NADRA record but are also available from AGPR Office from where they draw their salaries.
Most Polling Stations have registered voters anywhere from 700 to 1500. So if Polling ends at 5pm, within 2-3 hours Form-14’s are ready for distribution to Polling Agents and onward deposit to the Returning Officers. At every Polling Station at the end of Voting, votes were counted within 2-3 hours supposedly in the presence of polling agents of several political parties. Presiding Officers by law issue Form-14 after signing on their names & titles, fixing their own thumb impression and writing CNIC. This constitutes a dully Filled Form-14. Form-14 is a Public Document; it should be put outside the Polling Station; may be given to Media and given the universal presence of new Camera software in every phone we can capture their photos for record.(Suggestion for Media and Election Monitors for Next Elections)
What Mudassar (FAFEN) was suggesting was that before a Judicial Commission or any JIT starts to go towards the Vote Count, the first basic steps should be done which will reveal a lot about the Elections and the next steps like Vote Count in Constituencies. The first basic steps should be to verify if Election Commission has all Form-14’s dully filled from all Polling Stations of all Constituencies. There should be around 69-70,000 Form-14’s for National Assembly and the same for Provincial Assemblies (since same Polling Stations were used) so around 138-139,000 Form-14s should be in possession of Election Commission. (ECP as per its own plan and commitment was supposed to put scanned copies of all these Form-14’s on its Website but for reasons not explained it has not been able to do it, which itself is a very suspicious act and raises very difficult questions)
Once ECP confirms the presence of duly filled Form-14’s, the next simple step is verification of the “thumb impressions” and signatures of the Presiding Officers on these Form-14’s. Since the record of the appointment of the Presiding Officers is available and their signatures and thumb impressions are part of record in NADRA and AGPR so it should take only 2-3 or at most 3-4 days of electronic work by NADRA to verify if the Form-14’s with ECP used for final Election Result are the same that were issued by designated Presiding Officers at the designated Polling Stations or they were changed at a later stage at the level of RO’s or DRO’s. It is important to understand that RO or DRO or ECP cannot change the Form-14 once issued without the Due Process of Law. Also keep in mind that large number of copies of the Form-14’s issued by Presiding Officers are available with PPP, PTI, PMLN, other parties, Election Monitors and Media and once these Form-14’s are made available on ECP’s website it is possible for public to check if the Form-14’s used by ECP for result calculation are the same that were issued by Presiding Officers in the evening of 11th May 2013 (Day of controversial Elections)
This is only one step; many follow through steps are possible. FAFEN may issue a press release which we will follow. What is the basic idea? The idea is that Election Investigations is a fact finding mathematical job; this is not a legal or constitutional task. Legal and Constitutional issues are very secondary or tertiary in this task. This explains why Election Tribunals are not of much help. Because in Election Tribunals allegations are being addressed or scrutinized as per law and procedure. Complainants are supposed to bring hard evidence of rigging which they often can not assemble on their own. And the issues keep on dragging. So Election Tribunals – the way they are working – have limited application to this challenge of fact finding and determination of what happened. For example whole Town may have seen a murder but in a Pakistani court room it may still not be possible to prove that who killed whom. Election Tribunals unfortunately, the way they are constituted, also fall in the same category.
This also explains why PTI & Govt Negotiations are not reaching anywhere. PTI wants Constituency records (30 or more Constituencies) and documents, votes etc to be checked and scrutinized which is simple common sense of “fact finding”. But PMLN & Allies term this as “Super Tribunals” and unconstitutional. When in his latest address to the concluding hours of Joint Parliamentary Session, PM Nawaz Sharif said that “we won’t accept any constitutional demands” he was not worried about his “resignation” he was referring also to this process of checking Election Results. What PMLN has been suggesting (when they say we have accepted Five Points) is that Judicial Commission should investigate allegations leveled by Imran Khan and PTI against RO’s, DRO’s, Iftikahar Chaudhry, Najam Sethi and ECP etc or allegations that PMLN was responsible for rigging through Interim Governments or that PMLN was the beneficiary. This is a legal trick, the kind of which is used by lawyers in courts to defend their clients. In terms of Investigations into the Elections, the basic Election Audit these are meaningless time wasting excuses and nothing else.
We hope these ideas, discussed in 19th Sept, 2014 ARY Special broadcast and this Facebook Note reaches all political parties and Siyasi Jirga and it may help them. We have not seen PTI Negotiations Team’s final and actual written suggestions handed over to PMLN & Allies in govt but we have seen the proposals by Siyasi Jirga of JI and PPP and Sisyasi Jirga proposals are definitely weak, ambiguous and wishy-washy. They don’t offer any mathematical result oriented Audit of the Elections. All political parties, media pundit and students of political science and Pakistan’s international stake holders need to realize that given the doubts and controversy around Election 2013, any next elections in Pakistan will be meaningless unless the nature of irregularities of Election-2013 are resolved and lessons learnt for Electoral Reform. Similarly Election Commissions recommendations today for Electoral Reform and Electronic Voting etc are another waste of time since Electronic Voting can be doubly dangerous without creating institutions of integrity and the Members of current Election Commission have lost their trust in public eye; they should just resign.
Elections are the only reliable instrument for a “Transition of Power” in a democracy. Future of Democracy in Pakistan is at threat not because of protests but because Elections-2013 are most controversial since 1977 and significant sections of Pakistani population have lost trust in that exercise and there won’t be any trust in a future elections without resolving these issues. – More later on this.
A news to surprise people of
Pakistan
Judge Iftikhar Chaudhry is a traitor to Pakistan’s constitution. He must go.
نا انصافی نا منظور
جو آئین کا غدار ہے
اک پی سی او کی مار ہے
جو فوج کا خدمتگار ہے
اور مللاؤں کا یار ہے
جو اک ذہنی بیمار ہے
شہرت کا طلبگار ہے
وہ نفرت کا حقدار ہے
نا منظور نا منظور
نا انصافی نا منظور
نا منظور نا منظور
پی سی او جج نا منظور
An account of Iftikhar Cuaudhry’s Brilliant Career
By A.R. Yusuf
Our memories are short but not that short particularly with respect to Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry:
Oath on PCO 1999
1. In January 2000, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, then a serving judge on the Balochistan High Court (BHC), was one of the first judges to take the oath on the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) of the military dictator General Musharraf in violation of Pakistan’s constitution. This allowed him to be elevated to the Supreme Court to fill one of the vacancies left by the 11 judges who had resigned in protest at taking this oath.
Validation of the military coup
2. On May 13, 2000, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was one of the 12 Supreme Court judges who validated the military coup of Gen Pervez Musharraf. They ruled that the removal of the elected government of Nawaz Sharif was legal on the basis of the ‘doctrine of necessity’.
Forced resignation of President Tarar
3. In June 2001, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was one of two judges who visited the President House to convince the then President Rafiq Tarrar to resign, and make way for Gen Pervez Musharraf to assume that office.
In a wide ranging judgment they declared that the Legal Framework Order (LFO) instituted by General Musharraf after his suspension of the Constitution, the 17th Amendment which gave this constitutional backing, and the two offices bill which allowed Musharraf to retain his military uniform whilst being President were all legal.
Source: Dawn
Further brilliant achievements
Nepotism: Son’s Admission In FIA
Ansar Abbasi brought forth allegations against Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhray for gross misconduct in 2002, accusing him for admitting his Son Dr. Arsalan to FIA undermining all merits. For details, see this post on ATP
Selective judgement on PCO judges
Constitution Petition Regarding PCO Judges:
The decision of the court in CONSTITUTION PETITION NO. 08 and 09 OF 2009 from 14 member bench headed by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, summarily removed all justices of higher judiciary who were not part of it as on November 2, 2007. There removal was so ordered on ground that advice of de-jure Chief Justice of Supreme Pakistan was not obtained in these cases. In the same decision the court had held the de-jure Chief Justice between the period of November 3, 2007 and March 22, 2009 was Justice Chaudhry.
There were three groups of these removed justices.
- Those who were elevated to higher courts and initially took oath on PCO.
- Those who were elevated to higher courts after restoration of constitution, and were appointed by General Pervez Musharraf.
- Those who were elevated to higher courts after restoration of constitution, and were appointed by Asif Ali Zardari.
This decision have resulted in situation where:
- Newly appointed justices who never took any sort of oath on any PCO have been removed.
- Sitting justices who took oath on PCO 2007 are still acting as justices, though their cases are to be sent to Supreme Judicial Council.
- Sitting justices who accepted reappointed and took oath from Justice Dogar as still acting as justices of court with no action.
- Justices who took oath on PCO of 1999 are still functioning as justices of higher judiciary.
Video report: Iftikhar Chaudhry taking oath under PCO – 30 June 2005
– See more at: http://lubpak.com/archives/
ARSALAN IFTIKHAR CASE: ASMA QUESTIONS SUDDLE’S APPOINTMENT
Asma, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), also suggested inviting a Scotland Yard (metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London) team to probe the case if the country’s institutions were not deemed trustworthy by the judiciary.
Talking to reporters at the Lahore High Court premises, Asma alleged the court was not meeting the requirements of delivering justice in the case against Arsalan in the Bahria Town scandal. She also rejected the appointment of Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Mohammad Shoaib Suddle, the officer tasked by the apex court to investigate the case, after it barred the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from investigating the matter. She alleged that the apex court wanted to influence the investigations, as Suddle is said to have close links with Arsalan.
“The Supreme Court should ask the Scotland Yard to conduct the investigation into Arsalan Iftikhar’s case, if it has no confidence in the national institutions,” she said. Asma pointed out that Suddle also regularly accompanied Arsalan at various events. Therefore, he could not be expected to conduct a transparent investigation into the case.
Asma said Arsalan should, however, be given the benefit of the doubt. But she also reiterated that everyone should be treated equally under the law.
Criticising the court, she said if there were any questions over the NAB’s investigation team, then it could have been changed instead of forming a new inquiry team.
CJ GATE: INNOCENT CHAUDHRY, GUILTY DOGAR AND GREAT PAKISTANI REPTILIAN ANSAR ABBASI – BY RAZA BALOCH
We mostly watched out for each other especially when it came to mangling the Constitution in favour of the 3-Jeem alliance
First great Pakistani reptilian man Ansar Abbasi most probably is inspired of Bollywood’s super hero film “Shahanshah” released in 1988. Ansar Abbasi Shahanshah of Islamic Umma played the role of Shahnshah in Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar’s court and unveiled a scandal against Chief Justice Dogar by using his daughter Farah Hameed’s “marks issue” after a very conclusive investigation in 2008. Ansar Abbasi challenged the Chief Justice of Pakistan and threatened Farah Hameed by a dialogue “Rishtay mein to hum tumhary uncle lagtay hein magar nam hay hammara Shahanshah Ansar” and by singing a song “Roshan raaton mein abaad raahon par / har zulm mitaane ko ek Mulla nikalta hai jise log shahenshah Ansar kehte hain”.
Personally I really appreciated Ansar Abbasi’s artistic reptilian stature. His hair style, eyes, beard and face make up, all very similar but fiercer than Amitabh Bachan while attached a corrupt and sniveling bank manager Mathur and crime tycoon JK. Though Ansar’s height is about half to Amitabh but he acted well in super hit Shahanshah Ansar 2008 film and unveiled CJ Dogar’s corruption and use of power in getting some marks for his daugther in FSc examination. Our Shahanshah Ansar after that film has acted as hero or side hero in many films but after Chief of Chaudhries CoC Justice Iftkhar Chaudry regained his throne with the assistance of establishment, Ansar was assigned to defend the CoC’s Supreme League of Pakistan (SLOP).
CoC Iftikhar Chaudhry was compelled to open a closed gate aka the Mehran Gate after PML (N) opened a new gate called Memo Gate and then CoC’s legendary son Arsalan Iftakhar Choudhry opened third gate The CJ Gate and we know the heaven had seven gates so there are still four more gates to be opened. CoC acted well even better than Shahanshah Ansar and proved to be Shahanshah Akbar or Dilip Kumar in Mughal-e-Azam by taking suo moto against his son Arslan alias Shahzada Saleem alleged in long drive with Anarkali in London. Here in Lollywood’s Iftakhar-e-Azam Jodha Bai (Mrs CJ Chaudhry) was alleged to be accompanying Shahzada Saleem in shopping and staying in luxurious apartments in London. CoC Iftakhar-e-Azam has barred Shahazda Saleem from seeing her mother. “My father has told me I don’t need to return home nor make any contact with the family members,” Dr. Arsalan said. SLOP is made responsible by CoC to find out Anarkali of Iftakhar-e-Azam film and ordered to entomb her alive in a brick wall.
During this entire episode, many torchbearers of the supremacy and independence of Judiciary are playing their roles but Shahanshah Ansar is playing well and proved that SLOP or CoC (CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry) is not guilty of his son’s crime, that his innocent son was trapped and blackmailed by enemies of independent judiciary.
CoC wanted to decide this case according to verses in the Quran but not legal code of conduct. He saw no conflict of interest to head the bench, perhaps to chastise Arslan that why he did not invite the CoC to bea part of new Lollywood film “The CJ Gate” during shooting time in London.
CJ’s statement on oath that he swears on God that he had no knolwedge regarding shooting of the movie and Arslan’s business trips to London. CoC’s left eye was full of tears while he told in an open court that Arslan never had paid any penny to him or his mother and never had purchased even a few potatoes and beans for kitchen. “Arslan never bought suit for me even on Bakra Eid and he never offered me or his mother to pay for our Hajj expenses. Despite that I never taunted him for his luxurious London trip because he at least provided me with a lonely life in my home for a few months.”
CJ clearly told the open court that he trusts SLOP (Supreme League of Pakistan) and its second tier leader Justice Jawad Khwaja who is likely to solve the “The CJ Family Gate” issue politically by dialogues with elite business friends, journalists and lawyers. And if Arslan is found guilty he will be stoned in front of Anarkali and Anarkali will be cemented alive in a brick wall of the Independent Judicial Complex in Islamabad
In the meanwhile, kudos to great Pakistani Reptilian Ansar Abbasi who had proved Chief Justice Dogar as guilty of his daughter’s “crime” in 2008 and now in 2012 he has proved CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry as innocent of his son’s multi-millions business deals with Malik Riaz.http://www.geo.tv/
Of course, keep in mind that there are at least four more gates are awaiting to be opened!
