Men at work: Top poll official refuses to meet PTI leaders

ECP asks party to submit in writing the issues it wants to discuss

ISLAMABAD: The top election official on Thursday turned down a request of a meeting from the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, citing lack of time.

The PTI had formally written a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC), who heads the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), for a meeting. But CEC Justice (retd) Sardar Raza replied it was not possible due to his pressing engagements.

The ECP, however, asked the PTI to submit the issues it wanted to discuss with the top election official in writing.

Though the party lost the recent high-profile, NA-122 by-election to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and fared poorly in local government elections in Punjab, the PTI still alleges electoral rigging by the ruling party cost it the elections.

While talking to the media, PTI‘s deputy parliamentary leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the party still had reservations over the electoral system and believes laws were violated during the local government elections “just like the way it happened during the general elections of 2013”.

He said the findings of the judicial commission, constituted in line with the PTI’s demand for investigating rigging allegations, had been ignored. “Holding free, fair and transparent elections is the responsibility of the ECP, but it has failed to perform its due role,” he alleged.

Talking about the first phase of local bodies polls in Punjab and Sindh, Qureshi said the elections had led credence to his party’s reservations.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2015.