Imran asks CEC to resign after PMO audio leaks

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said on Monday that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja would have resigned “if he had any shame” in lieu of the Prime Minister Office (PMO) audio leaks that surfaced on social media a day earlier.

While addressing a ceremony at Government College University Lahore, Imran said “now new audio leaks have come forward where the chief election commissioner has been proven to be the house-servant of Nawaz Sharif”.

The PTI chief claimed that in another audio leak the CEC apparently asks the PML-N supremo “who should be disqualified” and that he will “disqualify Imran in the Toskhakhana case”.

Read 'National security crisis': PTI demands probe into govt audio leaks

“If he [CEC] had any shame, he would resign,” taunted Imran, “but he has no shame. That is why we will have to get him to resign.”

Imran said that the country’s “biggest fraudster” is returning to Pakistan, in an apparent jab at Pakistan Mulsim League- Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar, who is expected to take over after PML-N leader Miftah Ismail stepped down from the post of finance minister yesterday.

“When the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) asked him [Dar] how he got all this money when his father was simply a bicycle shop owner, he boarded the prime minister’s plane and fled the country with the excuse that he was going to seek medical treatment,” Imran said, while claiming that the former finance minister was retuning under “a deal”.

Imran also said that “there is more that will be revealed in the audio leaks” and asked the audience to “wait for the coming episodes”.

It may be noted here that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and key members of his party and family had become the centre of attention on Sunday after audio recordings from the Prime Minister Office (PMO), purportedly of their conversations, surfaced on social media.

The audios drew sharp criticism from the opposition, which expressed concerns over the security of the PMO. However, several government ministers had insisted that the audios pointed to no wrongdoing.Speaking at the university event today,

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“I have declared jihad against these thieves,” added Imran as he asked “everyone to prepare themselves”. “As long as I am alive, I will fight them and God willing, I will win,” he vowed.

In his speech at a political rally a day earlier, Imran had also criticised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman and former president Asif Zardari and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman.

“The wickets of Shahbaz, Zardari and Fazl are about to fall,” Imran, the former captain of the Pakistan cricket team, said. “For them, I have prepared an in-swing yorker,” he added. “Rana Sana and Shehbaz Sharif have made a plan for us, but they don’t know about my plan,” he stated.