By Sardar Sikander Shaheen

Nearly nine months after Daska debacle, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Monday, announced to launch either “departmental proceedings or criminal proceedings or both” against all those government officers/ officials who have been found guilty of foul play in National Assembly’s NA-75 Daska (Sialkot) by-election, held in February this year.

In a meeting, the ECP reviewed the reports of the two inquiries it had launched under the supervision of Joint Provincial Election Commissioner Saeed Gul to probe the Daska debacle.

The meeting decided to proceed against all the government officials and officers – including those from police, district administration and education departments (including the presiding officers concerned) for their role in Daska by-poll debacle.

Some of the senior officers who were assigned to by-poll oversight and are found guilty include (the then) Deputy Commissioner Sialkot Zeeshan Javed Lashari, District Police Officer (DPO) Sialkot Hassan Asad Alvi, Assistant Commissioner Daska Asif Hussain, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sambrial Zulfiqar Virk, DSP Daska Muhammad Ramzan Kamboh, DSP Tarffic Sialkot Mazhar Farid, Deputy Director Colleges Sialkot Iqbal Kaloya and others.

The ECP also placed under suspension the District Returning Officer (DRO) NA-75 Daska Abid Hussain and Returning Officer Athar Abbasi, and announced to proceed against them too, keeping in view the findings of the inquiries.

The electoral body has formed a committee headed by Secretary ECP Omar Hamid Khan and comprising of Special Secretary Zafar Iqbal Hussain, Director General (Law) Muhammad Arshad and other senior officials to oversee action against the officers/officials found guilty in NA-75 by-poll saga.

In this context, the ECP said it would hold another meeting within a week.

It merits mentioning here that NA-75 by-poll was held on February 19, this year, which saw serious allegations of massive rigging after some 20 POs “mysteriously disappeared” during the votes counting. PTI’s Ali Asjad Malhi and Nosheen Iftikhar from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) were main candidates for the by-poll in the said constituency.

The two inquiries by ECP have found senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders including Firdous Ashiq Awan and government officers/officials instrumental in NA-75 rigging.

On February 25, ECP announced to hold re-polling at the entire NA-75 Sialkot-IV on March 18 after the electoral body declared the result of by-election as null and void.

The PTI moved Supreme Court against the ECP’s decision. The apex court turned down the ruling party’s petition against by-poll in the entire NA-75 and by-election was finally held on April 10 wherein the PML-N candidate emerged victorious in the re-polling.

The commission, at that time, ordered the Punjab government that the then Commissioner Gujranwala Division Syed Gulzar Hussain Shah and the then Regional Police Officer (RPO) Gujranwala Region Riaz Nazir Gara be transferred from Gujranwala and posted outside this Division.

The commission also ordered that DC Sialkot, DPO Sialkot, AC Daska, DSP Sambrial and DSP Daska be suspended with immediate effect and should not be assigned any election duty in future.

The ECP said it would decide later whether it should directly hold inquiry against all these officers or direct provincial government to launch the related inquiry.

The commission also held hearing of the case in which the then Chief Secretary Punjab Jawad Rafique Malik and the then Inspector General Police (IGP) Inam Ghani were summoned who briefed the electoral body on different aspects of the case. Later, the commission itself launched the two inquiries and fixed responsibility.

This article first appeared in Business Recorder on Nov 9, 2021.