Electoral rigging probe: Imran warns of more protests if govt backs out

PTI chief rules out changes in agreement with PML-N

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE:

Imran Khan has warned the government that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters would take to the streets once again if any agreement over the judicial commission to probe electoral rigging is breached.

“We have already compromised on a lot of our stands. We have backed out of [the demand for] Nawaz Sharif’s resignation; we called off the dharna. If they back out now, we will have no choice but to take to the streets,” the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief said while speaking to the media in Lahore after a meeting with businessmen on Friday.

Reacting to the news about the government reaching out to the PTI to alter the agreement, Imran said the party would react strongly as it had already backed out of several preconditions. He believed that any move to alter the agreed points indicated the government wanted to stay away from investigating the rigging allegations, and wanted to “save itself”.

The PTI chief said the government had succumbed to the pressure of his party’s four-month-long protest, after which the agreement over the judicial commission’s formation was announced before the media.

He ruled out the possibility of any agreement with the government unless it agreed to what had been decided earlier by both the parties. “If you back out of the judicial commission, we will react. We will make it difficult for you to govern.”

Imran’s reply was apparently in response to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s briefing in the National Assembly on the agreement inked between the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the PTI over the proposed judicial commission. Dar, who was the chief negotiator during the talks, told the lawmakers the new commission was being formed in the light of principles agreed in a meeting with all parliamentary parties except the MQM.

“We did not accept any unconstitutional demand [of the PTI],” Dar said. “We made sure the word conspiracy, or by design, must be part of the MoU, which covers Article 218(3) of the Constitution.”

The finance minster informed the house that all differences on the judicial commission’s formation had been resolved to probe the alleged rigging in the 2013 elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2015.