Islamabad, Feb 18: Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s party has demanded the resignations of the Chief Election Commissioner and Chief Justice of Pakistan after a senior bureaucrat’s allegations that the top election body and judiciary were involved in the poll rigging.
Former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha on Saturday alleged that the candidates who were “losing” the elections “were made to win” in the city. He claimed that 13 candidates from Rawalpindi were forcefully declared winners.
His remarks came amidst jailed former prime minister Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party began nationwide protests against alleged rigging and stealing of its mandate in the February 8 elections.
Chattha resigned from his office after “accepting responsibility” for the manipulation of poll results.
A PTI spokesperson demanded that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja and Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa tender their resignations following the revelations by Rawalpindi Commissioner Chattha.
He said Chattha’s admission endorsed PTI’s stance on how the public mandate was stolen in the dark of the night, besides exposing the real characters involved in election rigging.
The spokesperson said that Chattha confessed that the victory of independent candidates leading with over 70,000 votes was converted into a defeat by putting fake stamps. He emphasised that Chattha’s testimony supported PTI’s stance that people had voted for PTI-affiliated independent candidates in large numbers. However, the overwhelming PTI majority was allegedly turned into a minority overnight through poll “fraud”. (PTI)
