Rigging allegations: Imran should put his own house in order, says Iqbal

'How can Imran Khan, who has not been able to run his own party on merit, run the country,' says federal minister

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday advised Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to ‘put his own house in order’ before levelling allegations of rigging.

“How can Imran Khan, who has not been able to run his own party on merit, run the country,” Iqbal said at a news conference in Islamabad.  He cited an internal report of PTI on the party’s performance in the 2013 elections which asserted that Imran did not allot tickets among hopefuls on merit.

The minister said that while election tribunals had disposed of 75% petitions filed by losing candidates so far, PTI had not even settled 10% of the complaints lodged by the party’s own workers.

Rejecting Imran’s repeated allegations of rigging, Iqbal said the 2013 general elections were the ‘most monitored’ polls in the country’s history.

“The 2013 elections were observed not just by local media and institutions, but foreign observers, including those from the EU, as well,” he said. Iqbal added that EU observers had deemed the 2013 polls ‘free, fair and transparent’.

”No country can claim to hold perfect elections. A lot of complaints are registered during elections even in big democracies like the US and India.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2014.