Pakistan - imran - A bull in the china shop

Ansar Abbasi

In his frustration, Imran Khan is fast becoming the proverbial bull in the China shop.

He is illogical, irrational and unreasonable. He demands that four constituencies should be re-opened for recounting and verification of votes. Otherwise, the PTI would close down Lahore on December 4, Faisalabad on December 8, Karachi on December 12 and the entire Pakistan on December 16. Khan and his party also pressed for the setting up of the judicial commission to probe the alleged rigging in the 2013 elections.

His demands relate to either the election tribunals or the Supreme Court. His plan C desires to irritate Nawaz Sharif, but it would actually be troublesome for the people, their businesses and the country.

No one except the election tribunals could order the re-opening of the four constituencies. This is what the Constitution says, and this is what the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled in different election petitions during the last 16 months.

Neither Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif nor the government could deliver what Imran Khan demands in regard to the four constituencies. Even Parliament has no such right in the present constitutional structure. Such an out of box demand could be met by the government only if the Constitution is amended by two third majority of the parliament.

Khan is also anxious to see the judicial commission constituted at the earliest to probe the PTI’s election rigging charges. He curses the government for not setting up the commission but conveniently forgets that the request for the setting up of the commission was sent to the Supreme Court’s chief justice in August. However, the request remains unanswered even after the lapse of three months.

Many constitutional experts argue that in the presence of Article 225 and following repeated Supreme Court judgements, it would not be within the constitutional limits to allow a judicial commission to probe electoral rigging disputes. It is believed that for some reason, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Nasirul Mulk, has not responded to the prime minister’s request.

Imran Khan has no confidence in the Election Commission of Pakistan; he has no faith in the judiciary; he does not trust Parliament and he simply hates Nawaz Sharif. Khan’s problem is that he wants the solutions of his choice irrespective of the legal and constitutional means. He thinks what he alleges is the reality and those not agreeing to his recourse are against him and the PTI, and are thus blocking justice.

For the same reason, he has attacked those whom he has been publicly admiring in the past. This list of IK and PTI’s hero-to-zero include Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, ex-Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, ex-Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday and former Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani and Jang Group.

For many in public, Imran Khan’s narrative of “massively rigged” elections is impressive. The PTI has also made many among masses to believe that Nawaz Sharif had stolen the 2013 mandate of PTI.

But as the Supreme Court recently observed in one of the election petitions that elections can’t be nullified on the basis of hearsay and public statements but on the basis of concrete evidence that the PTI is required to produce before the Election Tribunals.