No holds barred: Imran to defy ECP, run by-poll campaign

PTI chief says he will campaign for his party’s candidates for NA-122 and NA-154

LAHORE:

Rejecting the top polls supervisory body’s recent code of conduct for by-elections, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan said on Saturday that he would campaign for his party’s candidate, Aleem Khan, who is running for National Assembly constituency NA-122 (Lahore V).

Speaking at a news conference at PTI Chairman’s Secretariat, Imran said he would run an active campaign for his candidate, as, according to him, no law barred him from doing so. “According to our legal experts, there is no legal hitch. I will use all my energies in that constituency as we have to defeat rigging there,” he said.

Imran said he was shocked to learn that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had debarred him from campaigning. “There is no order of the Supreme Court to this effect, neither do I hold a government office,” he said. “I will also go to NA-154 (Lodhran-I) where Jehangir Tareen is contesting the by-election.”



The PTI chief questioned why the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) announced a Kissan Package after PTI’s Kissan convention in Hafizabad. “This [Kissan] package is part of a plan to rig the upcoming local government elections in Sindh and Punjab, and the ECP should take notice of it,” he added. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also did the same in Gilgit-Baltistan, where he announced a 40 billion-rupee package ahead of the polls for the G-B Council.”

He said the PTI would also publish the names of the public officers running PML-N’s by-election campaign, adding that the PTI would not allow officials to work under political influence.

With reference to NA-122 where reelection was ordered after an election tribunal unseated PML-N leader and National Assembly’s former speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Imran said out of 184,000 votes cast in the constituency, 53,000 were fake. “Further investigations can prove that these votes were forged,” he claimed.

Imran said his party would stage a sit-in outside the ECP office in Islamabad on October 4. “The ECP members who had rigged the 2013 elections should go home. How can we expect a fair and transparent by-election or local government polls under their supervision?”

The PTI chairman thanked the Pakistan Peoples Party for speaking against corruption in Punjab, and said he would expose PML-N’s corruption during the by-election campaign. He asked the government to explain why the cost of Nandipur power project jumped to Rs80 billion from Rs22 billion. He also sought an explanation on the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park and LNG corruption scandals.

Imran alleged that an officer of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA), Omer Virk, and DSP Riaz Shah were threatening people to vote for the PML-N in the by-polls. “The PTI will write a letter to the ECP to demand deployment of army troops during the by-elections,” he said, adding his party did not trust Punjab and Sindh police.

The PTI’s central leadership – including Hamid Khan, Jehangir Tareen, Chaudhary Sarwar and Aleem Khan – were also present at the press conference.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2015.