Justice Markandey Katju: Fresh elections are the only way out in Pakistan

Justice Markandey Katju

By Justice Markandey Katju–

(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman, Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own)

It is almost universally accepted that the Pakistan parliamentary elections held on February 8 were rigged on the orders of the army generals, and had the elections been free and fair former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) would have won close to 225 out of the 266 seats being contested, instead of the 100 independents being declared winners.

Even before the elections, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa (‘Justice Dramebaaz’ as I call him) — a modern version of Judge Jeffreys of England, almost murdered democracy in Pakistan. His flawed verdict, along with two crony Judges on the bench, deprived PTI of a party symbol.

Jailed PTI chief and former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan

The public revelation of Liaquat Ali Chattha, the Commissioner of Rawalpindi Division, that 13 PTI candidates who were leading by over 70,000 votes, were suddenly declared to have lost, has let the cat out of the bag, and is the last nail in the coffin of the bogus election. It is obvious that the same happened all over Pakistan, not just in Rawalpindi division.

The people of Pakistan have refused to accept this rigged, sham, factitious and phony election, and its doctored, bogus, fake, and spurious results. Any attempt by the corrupt Pakistan army to ram these results forcibly down the throats of the Pakistani people by anointing Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz , Asif Zardari or Bilawal Bhutto, and others of the erstwhile PDM gang, will only lead to civil war, the people using guerrilla tactics.

What then is the way out? The President of Pakistan has to completely and unequivocally cancel this fraudulent election, and order fresh elections under supervision of the UN or some other reputed international agency or reputed body of persons, to ensure that they are free and fair, and the army must be warned to remain in their barracks throughout the electoral process.

Unless this is done, terrible times are coming in Pakistan.

Some people say that there is no need for a re-election, and a fresh count of Form 45 ( which gives the result of each polling station ) would show that PTI has won about 170 seats.

I do not agree. When the entire election process has been corrupted, polluted, bastardized and tampered with from top to bottom, how can one be sure that Form 45 too has not been doctored and falsified?

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2457556/%7B%7B

https://indianexpress.com/article/pakistan/imran-khan-general-elections-pti-pakistan-assembly-9165452/

When there is mass cheating in an examination, the entire examination has to be canceled and a fresh one held. One cannot rest content by merely canceling the results of the candidates caught cheating. The same thing has to be done for this fraudulent and sham election, which seems more like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland, or the Eatanswill election depicted by Dickens in his Pickwick Papers.

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/p/the-pickwick-papers/summary-and-analysis/chapters-1314

http://www.historyhome.co.uk/readings/election.htm

Unless fresh elections are held, which are transparent, free and fair, terrible times are coming in Pakistan.

 

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