Member organizations of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) have joined hands against Sarwar Bari, a co-founder, and former secretary-general whose organization Pattan Development was recently expelled from the network.
In response to a press conference, Bari held a few days back and his social media posts against some officials of FAFEN, Network’s National and Executive Council members on Thursday termed his move a conspiracy to damage a credible and independent voice on the quality of elections and governance.
“It is unfortunate that Mr. Bari is out to damage the institution that he himself was part of building for over 15 years only after his expulsion from the network by its National Council due to negative behavior and self-serving designs”, they said.
Bari is a known figure in the development sector and had been a face of FAFEN till recently. FAFEN considered his public stance on the issue of electronic voting machines a deviation from the organization’s stated policy and distanced itself from his point of view.
Enraged Bari came up with allegations of mismanagement and figure fudging in the election report of the 2013 elections. As a result of his assertions, the incumbent government has announced investigations into his claims.
Members of FAFEN’s National and Executive Council in their presser on Thursday said Bari has attempted to separate FAFEN from the Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA), which serves as the administrative and programmatic secretariat of FAFEN since its registration in 2008.
FAFEN members had established TDEA as an independent legal entity primarily to encourage collective ownership in all aspects of FAFEN programming. Bari remained one of the trustees of TDEA between 2008 and 2015.
“Mr. Bari’s attacks on the integrity of TDEA-FAFEN appears to have been compelled by his frustration over the democratic decision-making processes that are employed at FAFEN to develop public positions and reform proposals in areas of FAFEN’s interest, which cannot be taken on the whims and wishes of an individual,” they said.
Evidence, research, and in-depth discussions follow programmatic and management decisions. The expulsion of Bari and PATTAN Development Organization that he heads for the last three decades also followed a rigorous process in accordance with FAFEN’s Rules and Regulations, they added.
Bari, wrote a letter to the FAFEN’s Executive Council through an email on October 14, 2021, discussing the network affairs and its relationship with TDEA. The contents of the letter contained allegations against FAFEN member organizations. FAFEN’s Executive Council took the letter as a complaint and decided to initiate an inquiry in its meeting held in Islamabad on October 18-19, 2021.
The two-day Executive Council meeting deliberated upon the contents of the letter in detail and conducted the required enquires. The preliminary investigation concluded that Bari needed to provide evidence in support of his allegations.
The same was requested to Bari through a letter by the Secretary-General FAFEN on behalf of the Executive Council via email on October 21, 2021. Bari, instead of providing the evidence challenged the authority of FAFEN’s Executive Council via email on the same day saying that he would take this issue to the National Council of FAFEN.
The Executive Council discussed Bari’s response in its virtual meeting held on October 23, 2021. The EC took the cognizance of the response and ongoing campaign by PATTAN Development Organization through its National Coordinator Sarwar Bari under FAFEN’s Rules and Regulations and suspended PATTAN’s membership of FAFEN along with an issuance of a show-cause notice to explain why PATTAN’s membership of FAFEN should not be terminated for causing damage to the reputation as well as the integrity of FAFEN and its key officials for leveling unsubstantiated, false, frivolous and baseless allegations against FAFEN member organizations and Secretariat officials, and by refusing to provide any evidence supporting those claims.
The Council members said that Bari neither responded to the show-cause notice nor did he seek a personal hearing before FAFEN’s Executive Council. In accordance with FAFEN’s Rules and Regulations, the Executive Council referred the case to the National Council with a recommendation of termination of PATTAN Development Organization for causing damage to the reputation of FAFEN and making false claims against ethical and intellectual integrity of FAFEN member organizations and its Secretariat.
The National Council in a meeting on November 16, 2021, with all its members in attendance, unanimously adopted the recommendation of the Executive Council and terminated the membership of PATTAN Development Organization. The termination letter reached Bari via email on November 18, 2021.
The council members said that two days after his termination, Bari came up with a set of new allegations of corruption and election observation data fudging, and held a press conference making his ongoing anti-FAFEN campaign public.
Interestingly, in his letter on October 14, 2021, to the FAFEN’s Executive Council, Bari said, “I acknowledge TDEA’s competence and financial honesty.”
TDEA has served Bari a legal notice under Section-8 of the Defamation Act, 2002, and is also proceeding against him under Section-499 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Fabrication of 2013 General Elections – National Assembly Results Analysis Report:
On the allegation of Fabrication of 2013 General Elections – National Assembly Results Analysis Report, TDEA-FAFEN’s said Bari has leveled the allegation on the basis of untrustworthy sources, selective reading, and deliberate oversights by intentionally ignoring the methodology of the said report that clearly states all sources of information used in its preparation. Like all of the rest of his allegations, this is especially ludicrous when he, himself, presented the said FAFEN Report in his capacity as the Trustee of TDEA and representative of FAFEN in Islamabad on February 21, 2014.
FAFEN said Bari has intentionally concocted the abovementioned allegation of doctoring the results of the FAFEN Report, so as to allow himself to level a false allegation against TDEA-FAFEN representative of misleading the Inquiry Commission of the Supreme Court on General Election 2013.
However, Bari again deliberately failed to read Paragraph 221 of the Inquiry Commission’s Report, which clearly stated that TDEA-FAFEN representative had honestly testified under oath before the Commission that Returning Officers of 161 of 267 NA constituencies had provided the copies of Forms XIV, XV, XVI and XVII to FAFEN observers after the 2013 general elections. This sufficiently belies his claim of fabrication of data.
Moreover, paragraph 227 of the Final Report of the General Elections-2013 Inquiry Commission 2015 accurately documented the testimony of TDEA-FAFEN representative, which again belied Bari’s claim of PVT finding corroborating with the ECP results. Paragraph 227 reads, “On the basis of PVT system the result tallied with that of 218 constituencies announced by ECP result for winner and 1st and 2nd runner up whilst 18 of these tallied with the ECP result for the winner and 1st runner-up. However, in 1[sic] 18 Constituencies because it was very close margin of victory the winner, and loser may change”. This deliberate oversight by Bari in reading the Supreme Court Inquiry Commission’s judgment again establishes his intent to malign TDEA-FAFEN’s work.
In addition, Bari, in fact, endorsed the above-mentioned submission to the Supreme Court and wished FAFEN the best of luck through an email dated: April 14, 2015 in his capacity as TDEA Trustee.
Misuse of Funds:
On the misuse of funds, TDEA-FAFEN said contrary to Bari’s claims, TDEA upholds the highest standards of financial transparency and accountability. TDEA maintains all critical statutory and financial documents on its website, open to public scrutiny. TDEA’s funds are regularly audited by reputed, category-A, audit firms and its annual audits are available on its website. Moreover, TDEA’s tax returns are also available there.
In addition, TDEA is also a registered Non-Profit Organization (NPO) under Section-2 (36)(c) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 granted by the Income Tax Commissioner, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The NPO certification follows a rigorous audit process by the FBR. Interestingly, Bari congratulated TDEA-FAFEN for proactive disclosures through an email dated April 23, 2014.
All the funding contracts are duly submitted to the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) as per the government’s policy.
Unauthorized Engagements with ECP:
On unauthorized engagements with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), TDEA-FAFEN said this is factually incorrect as TDEA cannot incur any expenses without the authorization of its board of trustees. TDEA board of trustees approve the organizational annual budget which also includes project budgets. The authority to approve the day-to-day activities and functions is vested in the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and is exercised under management policies and procedures.
Bari’s insinuations that TDEA has been “secretly” paying “huge amounts” to cover travel and accommodation expenses of ECP officials are mischievous and appear to be motivated by the mala fide intent of bringing into question the integrity of a constitutional institution.
The timing of such insinuations is a cause of concern for FAFEN. The fact of the matter is any engagement of TDEA with ECP has duly been approved by the Board as well as the Election Commission belying Bari’s claim of secrecy and illegitimacy. Such engagements have been arranged to complement the ECP-NADRA and civil society joint campaign to enhance Women’s NIC and Voter Registration, which is being implemented by member organizations of FAFEN since 2017. Bari’s PATTAN Development Organization has always been implementing such projects. All of the engagements were attended by representatives of FAFEN’s member organizations including representatives of PATTAN Development Organization.
Tenure of FAFEN’s Executive Council:
On the tenure of FAFEN’s executive council, TDEA-FAFEN’s said that FAFEN’s National Council in its meeting on December 24, 2020 had unanimously extended the tenure of the current executive council until the completion of the ongoing expansion of FAFEN from a network of organizations to a network of networks.
As part of this expansion plan, a total of 20 regional networks including the one formed by PATTAN Development Organization in 11 districts of Punjab have already been established with their regional conveners elected in October 2021. In the second leg of the expansion, FAFEN’s provincial councils have been constituted, and have elected their respective members for FAFEN’s executive council and provincial conveners.
The process for expansion followed FAFEN’s Manual of Rules and Regulations, which was duly approved by the National Council on September 10, 2021, during an online meeting. Bari also attended the meeting and endorsed the manual of Rules and Regulations. FAFEN Rules and Regulations do not discriminate between founding and other members.
The fact is that Bari considered the current Executive Council of FAFEN as legitimate until October 14, 2021. However, when the Executive Council asked for evidence from Bari to substantiate his allegations, he started to question the legitimacy of the Executive Council and leveled baseless allegations against it as well.
FAFEN’s National and Executive Councils members who attended the press conference included Malik Shabaz, SUNGI Development Foundation; Zahid Iqbal, Samaj Development Foundation; Farman Ali, Sudhaar Society; Jan Odhano, Community Development Foundation; Ghulam Mustafa, Farmers Development Organization; Younis Bandhani, Baanh Baeli; Shah Nasir Khisro Integrated Regional Support Program, Zahid Islam, Sangat Development Foundation; Anbreen Ajaib, BEDARI; Ghaffar Shah, Community Awareness Raising and Advocacy Venture Around Needs; Omer Javed, Welfare Association Jared; Muhammad Yaqoob, Takhleeq Foundation; Hameed Ullah Kakar, Youth Organization; Ome-e-Kulsoom, Social Youth Council of Patriots; Nazir Ahmed Ujjan, Goth Seengar Foundation; Shahid Jatoi, Sustainable Social Development Organization; Mossarat Qadeem, PAIMAN Alumni Trust; Nasrullah, Center for Peace and Development; Zaheer Khattak, United Rural Development Organization and Fouzia Hanif, Community Development Program.
