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.
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