K-P govt played no role in Mian Iftikhar's arrest: Imran

PTI chief says there is no political victimisation in K-P, police will investigate the matter independently

ISLAMABAD: PTI chairman Imran Khan on Sunday rejected claims that there was any pressure on the police from the provincial government to arrest Awami National Party (ANP) leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain after the death of a PTI worker in Charsadda during violence-marred local government elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“The FIR was lodged neither on my nor on the orders of Pervez Khattak,” said Imran while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Sunday. “Police in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa works as per law, and there is no political intervention.”

He said there was no political victimisation in K-P, and the police will investigate the matter independently.

Read: ANP's central general secretary arrested over PTI worker's death

“I don’t know what happened. The locals were there who were not allowing him to leave till an FIR is registered,” he said. “If he is not involved, there will be no pressure from our side.”

Speaking on violence during Saturday's LG polls, the PTI chief said the K-P government was not responsible as it had fully empowered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take action against miscreants and troublemakers.

“K-P government is being wrongly criticised. I called Pervez Khattak, who said he was helpless as all powers were given to the ECP.”

He said such incidents were inevitable due to the 'massive' scale of the election, adding that the ECP should investigate the case to avoid such incidents in the future.

Regarding claims made by opposition parties of rigging in the LG polls, Imran asked the chief election commissioner (CEC) to form tribunals, initiate inquiry and pass verdicts within a month.

“Punish those who are responsible,” he said.  “I have also asked Pervez Khattak to order an inquiry into poll rigging that will be conducted by the chief secretary.”

Further, he censured the NADRA chief for going on ‘vacation’ since it affected the hearings of the NA-122 poll rigging case.

“He should have informed the government earlier, what emergency did he have anyway?” said Imran. “This is happening on government pressure.”