They are: Muhammad Salman Mohsin (NA-165), Javed Hasnain Shah (NA-68), Gulistan Khan (PK-69), Humayun Aziz Kurd (NA-267), Kishwar Kumar (PK- Reserved Seat), Israr ullah Khan (Senator - Balochistan), Shamma Parveen Magsi (Reserved Seat -Balochistan), Saima Aziz (Reserved Seat - Punjab), and Abdul Qayum Khan (PK-64). They were invited to appear before the Commission through the media and letters written to them, personally, by the Election Commission.
In previous hearing on August 23, three members, out of six, remained absent due to one or other reason. "But, this time we have called them through media and letters written to them on their addresses; so no excuse is made to avoid appearance," Afzal Khan, spokesman of Election Commission, told APP.
Afzal is Joint Secretary and a senior official deputed by the Chief Election Commissioner, former Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, to supervise the matter, on directions of Supreme Court of Pakistan.
"Those who will fail to appear before the Commission to explain their position, their cases shall be forwarded to concerned Sessions Judges to proceed further in the light of the Supreme Court directives," Afzal added.
He said the Committees comprising himself as Chairman and particularly members from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the concerned universities shall submit its report to the Chief Election Commissioner, who would subsequently send the matter to concerned Sessions Judges.
During previous hearing, on August 23, the representative of three parliamentarians were present while the other three were absent. All the three representatives present at hearing had requested for fixing another date for hearing as they were unable to attend the hearing due to some genuine reasons.
Regarding absent parliamentarians, the Committee, with consensus, had decided to issue them second notice to appear on August 30 and also decided to issue notices to six more parliamentarians to appear on the same day.
"On Monday, August 30, it will be last chance for them to appear before the Commission, after which they will have no ground to defend themselves," Afzal said. "Their cases will be proceeded further if they fail to appear."
Last time, some of the members had pleaded that they were not conveyed about the hearing. Therefore, the ECP afterwards conveyed to them that they are being called upon through the media and the letters personally written to them to appear before the Commission.
"They have been also conveyed that if they failed to turn up this time, the hearing in their cases would be concluded and they would then have nothing to defend," Afzal said.
The Election Commission is pursuing this process on directives of the Supreme Court to the Commission in Rizwan Gill vs Nadia Aziz case. In its observation, the Supreme Court had directed the Commission, "to initiate action against all such persons who are accused of commission of corrupt practices of committing forgery and using as genuine the documents which they knew are at least had reason to believed to be forged."
The Supreme Court had also directed: "The Election Commission shall ensure that the investigations in these matters are conducted honestly, efficiently and expeditiously and shall depute one of its senior officials to supervise the same."
The Supreme Court had further directed: "The learned Sessions Judges to whom these trials should be entrusted, are also directed to conclude the same without any delay, in consonance with spirit of election laws as displayed inter alia by the provisos newly added to sub-section (1A) of section 67 of the said act of 1976, through the mending act no IV of 2009. In any case, it should not take each learned Sessions Judge to get seized the matter more than three months to conclude the same."
Afzal said, "What we are doing is in light of the directives of the Supreme Court, and there should be no confusion about it." "So, the parties who will fail to appear before the Commission, shall have to face the further course of law," he added.