Pakistan's top election body 'unlikely' to meet result publication deadline

Islamabad, Feb 22 (PTI) Pakistan's top election body was on Thursday on the verge of missing the legal deadline to upload key post-election documents on its website for masses to see the results of the elections mired in controversies, including vote rigging.
    The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) under Section 95 of the Elections Act 2017 should publish comprehensive election results within 24 hours of vote consolidation and then make Forms 45 and 47 publicly accessible 14 days after the polling.
    As the elections were held on February 8, the two forms, respectively dealing with the count of results of individual polling stations and consolidated results of each constituency, should be uploaded on the ECP website by the end of February 22.
    The ECP has so far uploaded only Form 47 of each constituency but Form 45 has not been uploaded.
    A senior ECP official told the Dawn newspaper that the electoral watchdog was unlikely to place the documents on its website today (Thursday) due to legal challenges by the candidates.
    He said that around 300 petitions alleging differences between Forms 45 and 47 had been forwarded to the commission by high courts, setting timelines for decisions.
    He said many petitioners were carrying Forms 45, which were different from the ones possessed by the respondents. He said it would take some time to verify the authenticity of these documents.
    Meanwhile, lawmakers have urged the ECP to meet the legal deadline.
    Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan of Jamaat-i-Islami told the paper that the ECP’s failure to meet the legal requirement would put a question mark on the legality of the Feb 8 elections.
    He warned that any attempts to tamper with the Forms 45 would make it a “fit case of high treason”. He, however, agreed that this would not be the first time the ECP would miss a legal deadline.
    Senator Tahir Bizenjo of the National Party also demanded that the mandatory requirement of the law be met, suggesting that the ECP’s failure to timely upload the key documents on its website would add fuel to the fire and exacerbate existing tensions and doubts surrounding the election results.
    He, however, regretted that the law and Constitution existed only on paper. He said the elections were already controversial, alleging that results had been prepared before voting and that the electoral exercise was just a formality.
    Senator Irfan Siddiqui of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, however, said that organised efforts were underway to make the elections controversial.
    He recalled that the same had also been done after the 2013 general elections, which were held to be in line with public opinion by a judicial body headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk.
    "That time they alleged ‘35 punctures’ and now they are talking about variations between Forms 45 and Forms 47,“ he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)