AJK CEC directs RO Dadyal to resubmit fresh inquiry report into handout by Gandapur

 The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) retired Justice Abdul Rashid Sulehria on Tuesday rejected an inquiry report by the returning officer (RO) of LA-1, Mirpur-I on the issue of grant of cash by federal minister Ali Ameen Gandapur to a PTI activist at an election related event in Dadyal and ordered him to resubmit a fresh inquiry after identifying the culpable as well as the beneficiary in the matter.

Without taking any name, he also declared that proper proceedings should be initiated against the minister in the police station [concerned] and confiscated money be made its part as an evidence.

On July 4, Mr Gandapur had attended an event in Ganhair village on the outskirts of Dadyal where he had given some cash to one Chaudhry Rasib, a local PTI activist, for repair, for the time being, of some badly damaged portions of a link road in the presence of PTI candidate Chaudhry Azhar Sadiq.

After the video clip of the happening went viral on social media, ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lodged a complaint with RO Raja Shamraiz for action against both Sadiq and Gandapur.

In response to a show cause notice served by the RO, both Sadiq and Rasib appeared before him on two consecutive days on Thursday and Friday last to record their statements wherein they pleaded not guilty.

Rasib informed the RO that the federal minister was known to him for a long time and had visited Ganhair on his request because he wanted his help for repair of the rundown link road.

Continuing, he had informed the RO that the minister had given him just Rs 390,000 from his pocket and not Rs 500,000 as claimed by many on social media and that Sadiq had nothing to do with it.

The RO had confiscated the amount in favour of the government and submitted a detailed report to the EC.

Speaking to this scribe on Friday evening, the RO had maintained that since the complainant from the PML-N could not establish involvement of Mr Sadiq in this affair, he had given him a warning to ensure observance of the code of conduct in future.

However, in an official communication addressed to the commission’s secretary Sardar Ghazanfar, the CEC not only found faults with the RO’s report but also rejected it outright.

“After the footage came to fore, I had directed SSP Mirpur and RO Dadyal to submit their report in this matter. However, the RO did not record any statement of candidate Azhar Sadiq in this regard, notwithstanding its urgency,” said the CEC.

Instead, the RO summoned the ‘concerned person’ [a reference to Rasib], recorded his statement and recovered the amount and submitted report to the commission, a perusal of which suggests that the RO did not blame anyone for this monetary dealing, the CEC said in the communication in Urdu language. 

“For that reason, no action against any person can be initiated unless there is clear sureness [about the matter],” he added.

He was of the view that the RO should have recorded the statement of the police officer who was also present on the occasion. Furthermore, he questioned, since the minister had “doled out money in a public meeting in favour of a particular candidate, how could his [the candidate’s] involvement be ruled out?”

The CEC held that it was proven beyond doubt that the minister had given money in what amounted to “bribe” and subsequently crime.

“The RO was duty bound to determine as to who is the culpable and who is the beneficiary,” he said, adding an FIR against the minister concerned was essential because the amount given on that occasion had also been recovered.

The CEC also took exception to the police official, seen in the video clip, saying it was his responsibility as well to register the FIR and instantly inform the office about the proceedings.  

“The seizure of the amount distributed openly in a public meeting was also obligatory. This incident cannot be dealt with summarily; there should have been proper investigation in favour or in opposition of the person concerned,” the CEC held.

While rejecting the report, he directed the RO to hold investigations to identify the actual culpable as well as the person who wanted to benefit from this money.

“Whatever action is permissible under law should be taken in the matter,” he directed.

On Tuesday, Gandapur and his colleague Murad Saeed were in remote Haveli district to campaign for PTI candidate Amir Nazir Choudhary.

Despite attempts, this correspondent could not reach him for comments on this issue.

Tariq Naqash

Bilawal blasts PMLN for 'giving space to Imran'

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday blatantly criticised former ally Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with a volley of blunt comments tinged with sarcasm at an election rally in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) but did not take its name directly even once in his entire speech.

Speaking to a huge emotionally charged crowd of PPP supporters in the town of Abbaspur, Mr Bhutto-Zardari also reiterated his diatribe against Prime Minister Imran Khan but for the first time persistently upbraided the PML-N for what he alleged giving space to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) governments in the centre and Punjab.

The PPP chairman also took strong exception to those who, according to him, claimed on TV screens that the PPP had finished or was restricted to just one province and asked them to “open their eyes and look at the crowd in the mountains of Abbaspur.”

“This is just a trailer; the PPP has now set off its journey. It was thriving yesterday, it is thriving today and in the days to come you will see only PPP,” he said at the outset of his speech.

Highlighting the importance of AJK polls, he exhorted the masses to send a message on both sides of the divide with the power of their vote that the “sell-out of Kashmir is unacceptable.”

“When we say the sell-out of Kashmir is unacceptable, it also means whatever is happening in occupied Kashmir is unbearable to us.”

“When we say we don’t pray for Modi’s success in elections and don’t invite him at our weddings, we give a message that we stand shoulder to shoulder with the Kashmiri Muslims and we are ready to confront Modi boldly.”

Repeating his allegation that PM Khan had disappointed the nation with his reaction to India’s moves on occupied Kashmir, he asserted that together with the AJK people, his party would not allow anyone to think about a “compromise on Kashmir.”

“The whole world knows that the Kashmiris have been struggling for over 70 years and have not accepted dictations and coercions. They will decide their destiny by themselves and both Islamabad and Delhi will have to accept it.”

Drawing attention to economic situation in Pakistan, he said people were under an obligation to save AJK from the “incompetent and puppet regime” in Islamabad which had “plunged the nation in historic poverty, unemployment and dearness in the name of so-called change.”

“What kind of politics and economic policy is it which has rendered the people already possessing homes and doing jobs homeless and jobless?”

Asking people to recognize the “hypocrite telling lies and taking u-turns while giving relief to the rich and inflicting pain on the poor,” he announced that the PPP would increase the salaries and pensions after forming the government in AJK.

“You will have to make a decision that whether you want a selected and incompetent government and a puppet prime minister in Azad Kashmir? If not, you will have to throw your weight behind the PPP.”

With this preamble, Mr Bhutto-Zardari asserted that the PPP was fighting and giving a tough time to the “selected system and puppet ruler” in the centre from the day one.

Though without naming anyone but clearly referring to the PML-N, he said the PPP had reached out to all of its [previous] opponents while forgetting the bitterness of the past.

“We even went to the prison to meet our political opponent because we believed that in order to get rid of the selected ruler the whole of Pakistan will have to unite… While in jail, we made him an ideologue. We also met his whole family with full respect and honour which is essential for politics,” he said, alluding to PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif.

He said he should have listened to his workers who kept on prohibiting him [from entering in an alliance with the PML-N].

“We came to know they do not have any interest in dislodging Imran Khan. Rather they wanted this puppet and Buzdar to continue, without bothering about the miseries that this regime has gifted to the masses.”

He however vowed that the PPP would go ahead with its mission to dislodge both with the help of its workers.

In a sarcastic tone, he remarked that contrary to their avowals, they (PML-N) had landed in submissiveness.

“Now they say whoever's feet they have to grovel at to become the prime minister, they will do this. The ideological journey of 'aar paar' has culminated into the politics of grovelling  at the feet," he said.

 "But only you can resort to such submissiveness, not the jiyalas who have gone to the gallows, have served jail terms and have borne lashes,” he added, vowing that the PPP would fight back boldly without striking a deal on the rights of the people.

“We will send both Buzdar and Imran packing to rid the people of Pakistan of them.”

He said PPP had competed with PM Khan on all fronts despite knowing which forces were backing him and added that with the support of the masses the PPP would defeat him as well as all other undemocratic forces.

Again alluding to the PML-N, he said: “Our friends wanted to leave the field open for Mr Khan in by-elections and it was PPP’s courage, decision and thought that we should not boycott but contest. When my workers made this decision, they  too felt emboldened to take part in by-elections.”

Referring to the Karachi by-election won by the PPP, he said the friends in opposition should have distributed sweets out of jubilation but instead they quarreled with us.

“We will not give space to Imran Khan even by an inch; neither will we fall into anybody’s feet nor will we boycott any election and Imran Khan will continue to face defeats in future exactly the way the PPP had defeated him in Senate election,” he said, in a reference to Yousuf Raza Gillani’s election.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari also took exception to the absence of PML-N and JUI-F lawmakers from the budget session, and expressed the hope that Shehbaz Sharif and Maulana Fazlur Rehman would serve show cause notices on their parliamentarians who had abstained.

He claimed that people would support those who had braved Imran Khan despite odds and not those who had “ditched the opposition.”

In yet another sarcastic comment, he said: “We do politics of alliance for the sake of the people. But if you want an alliance to consume nihari and halwa we won’t be part of it.”

 He offered that if the PPP’s stand that Punjab chief minister should be ousted through a vote of no confidence followed by ouster of the prime minister in a similar manner was acknowledged, the PPP members would offer themselves for the purpose.

“I assure them that we will work for you. You just vote and we will topple them the way we had done in the past.”

Disputing PM Khan’s claim about denial of air bases to the US, he claimed this decision was taken by the PPP government through the Parliament and warned that no u-turn on it would be allowed.

"When the government comes into existence with the power of people’s votes, it can confront face to face not only India but also the US."

He appreciated the National Security Committee as a good beginning and said the PPP would take every decision through the Parliament unlike the present government that took decisions in the dead of night.

He assured that the PPP would protect the interests of the Kashmiris on both sides of the divide and expressed the hope that voters in AJK would install its government with a two thirds majority.

“Allah willing, after you elect the PM from PPP we will march towards Bani Gala and Islamabad and drive away puppets from there as well.”

Earlier former AJK Presidenr Sardar Yaqoob Khan who is contesting elections from two constituencies of Poonch, Sardar Amjad Yousaf and others also spoke.

Tariq Naqash