2013 poll rigging: Relentless Imran hits out at ECP

PTI chief blames poll body for ‘protecting criminals’ who rigged polls

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE:

Previously satisfied with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman now claims that the poll supervisory body is “protecting the criminals who had rigged the 2013 general elections”.

On September 2, Imran Khan told the chief election commissioner (CEC) that he was happy that the CEC had started working on the findings of the judicial commission formed to probe the rigging allegations. CEC Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan had assured Imran that mismanagement and irregularities would not occur in future elections. The PTI chief was also assured that any negligence on the part of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would be addressed.

On Wednesday, however, as he was leaving his Bani Gala residence for Lahore in connection with a campaign for the NA-122 (Lahore-V) by-poll, Imran told the media that the ECP was ‘protecting criminals’.

“The big question is: why has the ECP not taken action against those responsible for the 53,000 irregularities? Because they are obviously complicit with them,” he said. “There were 53,000 irregularities out of 184,000 votes in NA-122. These [were] not ‘mistakes’ but rigging on a massive scale – a planned conspiracy.”

Though the PTI had agreed in writing that it would accept the decision of the judicial commission, Imran insists there was planned rigging in the previous general elections, which is contrary to the body’s findings. The party chief said the judicial body had pointed out 40 ‘irregularities’ on the part of the ECP. “But we term them ‘rigging’.”

He vowed to expose the ‘corrupt electoral system’. “The struggle will continue, and after the NA-122 by-poll [on October 11], the PTI will reorganise a rally at D-Chowk in Islamabad.”

He demanded the provincial election commissioners resign before the by-election, because “they are part of the conspiracy. The current election commission supports criminals. Corrupt people will keep coming to power until the existing electoral system is changed.”

Lahore rally

As the PTI chief initiated the last leg of the NA-122 election campaign in Lahore, he reiterated his reservations regarding the provincial election commission, claiming that the body was “working in connivance with the PML-N to ensure the ruling party’s victory in the by-poll”.

Imran’s visit comes after challenging and winning the legal battle in the Lahore High Court against the ECP’s decision to bar parliamentarians from taking part in election campaigns.

The party’s district leadership had announced last week that the PTI chairman would be leading the final stage of the campaign in the constituency where he had lost to PML-N’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in the last general elections.

With the party aggressively engaging in building a political alliance ahead of the by-polls in Lahore and Lodhran, Imran lambasted the PML-N leadership for “fleeing the electoral ground” in the wake of the Supreme Court’s stay order on the NA-154 (Lodhran-I) by-election.

Referring to the hearing of Sadiq’s petition regarding the NA-122 by-poll, scheduled for October 10, Imran feared that the PML-N would “flee from this constituency as well”.

He lashed out when he was asked if the party would accept the results of the by-poll. “The election is being held under the same ECP that was responsible for rigging the 2013 polls.”

With MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif questioning Imran’s decision against contesting the by-poll himself, the PTI chief said he would have contested if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had faced him in the by-poll.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2015.