IT is a peculiar situation the judicial commission led by the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan has found itself in.

Faced with political parties who have alleged systematic fraud in the May 2013 general election but have been unable to provide the evidence to back up their claims, the inquiry commission headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk has drawn up a list of three questions for those alleging fraud in May 2013 to answer. Taken together, the three questions effectively trying to find out answers to how, who and where amount to attempting to get the political parties alleging fraud to focus their claims in front of the tribunal. Surprisingly or perhaps not surprisingly to some the PTI has been the arch culprit in supplying a confused and confusing set of documents to the commission that do little other than rehash generic claims and allegations made at media conferences and political rallies. But it is not just the PTI at fault. Nearly every mainstream political party, including the PPP, ANP, JI, JUI-F and PML-Q, have in various degrees argued since May 2013 that seats were stolen from them in May 2013. Now that the time has come to present the facts to back up their claims, the parties seem unable or unwilling to provide the evidence to the inquiry commission.

Perhaps now that the commission itself has tried to provide focus to what the political parties are to present, the parties before the commission will comply. Even the strongest defenders of the May 2013 election have never claimed that it was entirely free of manipulation and fraud. At best, it was a progressively more credible and acceptable election that reflected the overall will of the electorate. That though should not be where the bar remains for the next general election it must be raised if the legitimacy and strength of the democratic system is to be improved. The work of the judicial inquiry commission, if aided by the political parties, could go a significant way towards improving the electoral system. Surely, the PTPs goal must extend beyond simply knocking out the PML-N government in Islamabad. A cleaner, more transparent and fair electoral process is in the PTPs interests, especially since the party is yet to construct the extensive electoral and patronage machine of other parties. If the PTI presents to the commission the evidence that the party has long claimed it possesses, the commission will surely act on it.