Pakistan: Imran Khan's party PTI alleges poll rigging, demands judicial probe

The party of imprisoned former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday called for the creation of a judicial panel to look into a senior bureaucrat’s claim that vote manipulation occurred within the electoral body and the upper judiciary.

Liaquat Ali Chattha, the commissioner for Rawalpindi, claimed on Saturday that the candidates who were “losing” the polls “were made to win” in the city. He said, prior to his resignation, that thirteen Rawalpindi contestants had been arbitrarily named the victors.

His words coincided with the start of statewide rallies by the imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party against the purported manipulation and theft of its mandate in the February 8 elections.

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“I am taking responsibility for all this wrongdoing and telling you that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice are also completely involved in this,” Liaquat Ali Chattha said.

After “accepting responsibility” for the falsification of poll results, Liaquat Ali Chattha resigned from his position.

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, a senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, stated on Sunday that the party was calling for the creation of a judicial committee to look into the allegations of “rigged election results” and to make the findings public.

Liaquat Ali Chattha’s claims, according to Gohar Ali Khan, validated what the party had been stating all along.

“This is the first time a commissioner is raising his voice according to his conscience. He said that he made sure candidates who lost were made to win while those who won were made to lose. This corroborates what we have been saying,” he said.

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“That is why the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf demands that a judicial commission be formed and an inquiry be conducted. And not just an inquiry, but those [involved] should be made to join the inquiry,” he said, adding that the report of such an inquiry should also be shared with the people.

Gohar Ali Khan added that Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s resignation was not being demanded by the party.

He claimed that attempts were made to prevent the party from participating in politics when a large number of people turned out to vote in response to the demand of Imran Khan, the 71-year-old leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

“We had won 180 seats in the National Assembly, 42 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, 115 in Punjab, 16 in Sindh, and four in Balochistan assembly,” he said.

Gohar Ali Khan said that three seats were still owed to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, of which one had already been awarded in Balochistan.

“In Sindh, we did not get a single seat, they are all due. In Punjab, around 50 seats are due,” he said.

Omar Ayub Khan, the party’s prime minister candidate, stated during the news conference that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would create administrations in both the federal and provincial levels.