ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has once again looked to the Supreme Court for investigation by a judicial commission into his party’s claims of rigging in last year’s general elections.

But it is to be seen whether the PML-N government, which can ask the apex court to set up an inquiry commission, will want to oblige the PTI chief.

A senior official of the Supreme Court told Dawn that under the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1956, the federal government could request the chief justice for constituting an inquiry commission. Its terms of reference would also be formulated by the executive. Since the inquiry report would be a government property, it would be up to the executive to make it public or not, he added.

On August 13 this year, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself invoked the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1956, when he proposed a three-member judicial commission to investigate PTI’s allegations against former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, former Punjab caretaker chief minister Najam Sethi and officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

“Since there was lack of consensus among main political players over the proposed judicial commission there was general agreement within the Supreme Court to stay away from the controversy,” the SC official said.

He said the chief justice could only nominate the judges of the commission, the nature and scope of inquiry would be decided by competing political parties through consensus.

The official said recommendations of the commission could be implemented only if the executive desired so. The Punjab government was yet to make public the Justice Baqir report about the Model Town killings of 13 Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers, he added.

The government had earlier agreed to constitute a judicial commission through a presidential ordinance, but refused to give it special powers to determine whether the last year’s general elections were rigged or not.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2014