The chief election commissioner must take a decisive action after the Rawalpindi commissioner has said it all. He has done the damage, having implicated the chief election commissioner and the Supreme Court chief justice in the alleged rigging in the February 8 polls. Both Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and the Supreme Court chief justice have however denied the allegations, with Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa clarifying that his role was to only direct President Arif Alvi and the chief election commissioner to decide on a date of holding the polls. He said evidence should be produced after Mr Chattha’s allegations of rigging.
Following the allegations, the commissioner’s office was sealed and Mr Chattha surrendered himself to the police. According to his colleagues in the Punjab administration, Liaquat Chattha is a hardworking officer, having served on various positions. He had been holding meetings and was going about his routine work post elections and did not drop an iota of hint as to what was in store. He did not show any signs of depression either.
He had even held a meeting the other day that discussed issues of sanitation and water shortage in Rawalpindi. This meeting was also attended by MNA-elect Hanif Abbasi. A journalist who had met the former commissioner a day prior to his press conference said he was acting normal. During the course of the conversation, he had asked the reporter what he thought of the recently-concluded general elections.
Even though, the Election Commission of Pakistan, while rejecting the allegations, has established a committee to probe the former commissioner’s claims, who will trust its findings when its results are being challenged. The committee has been tasked with questioning relevant returning officers and district returning officers in light of Mr Chattha’s allegations. Though Mr Chattha has resigned, he was transferred to the Services and General Administration Department in Lahore and Rawalpindi Development Authority Director General Saif Anwar Jappa was given the additional charge.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has demanded both the chief election commissioner and the chief justice to resign. The party claims that the former commissioner’s confession had endorsed its claim that the PTI’s mandate had been stolen. What all is happening is unfortunate. Never before has such uncertainty prevailed after the elections. It was expected that the polls would bring stability in the country which has been facing political and economic crises for almost two years now.
But instead of putting the country on stable footing, its path has only gotten more slippery. On the other hand, the PML-N and PPP have still not reached an agreement on the formation of the next government. With the assemblies expected to be summoned on Feb 29, the political parties need to sort out their issues.
