- The Pakistani Election Commission has established a high-level committee to look into the shocking claims made by a senior bureaucrat that the top election body and the judiciary collaborated in widespread election rigging against the party of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Liaquat Ali Chattha, a former commissioner of Rawalpindi, claimed on Saturday that the candidates who were “losing” the polls “were made to win” in the city. He asserted that 13 Rawalpindi contestants were arbitrarily proclaimed the winners.
His comments coincided with the statewide rallies launched by the jailed former prime minister Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party over the alleged manipulation and theft of its mandate in the elections held on February 8.
The Dawn newspaper cited him as stating, “I am taking the responsibility for all this wrongdoing and telling you that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice are also completely involved in this.”
Did Mr.Chattha resign?
Upon “accepting responsibility” for the manipulation of poll results, Mr. Chattha resigned from his position.
The accusations made by Mr. Chattha against the chief election commissioner have been categorically denied by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
To address the commissioner’s accusations, it called an emergency meeting and established a high-level committee to look into them.
Sikandar Sultan Raja, the Chief Election Commissioner, participated in the meeting via video conference.
The election regulator would choose whether to prosecute the commissioner for contempt based on the committee’s report.
Within three days, the high-level committee will record the remarks made by the pertinent district and returning officials and submit its findings to the ECP.
How did the opposition react to the claims from the Pakistan General Elections?
Saif Anwar Jappa, the recently appointed commissioner for Rawalpindi, has resued each allegation leveled by the outgoing commissioner concerning anomalies in the general elections held on February 8. He made it clear that the commissioner’s main responsibility during the elections was coordination.
The District Returning Officer (DRO) for Rawalpindi emphasized the correctness and fairness of the most recent elections, assuring that they were held in full transparency and free from outside interference.
According to Internet surveillance group NetBlocks, there has been a widespread outage of social networking site X’s service in Pakistan as a result of the “escalating unrest and protests” over claims of election fraud.
The interruption occurred “following a high-level resignation and public admission of vote manipulation by a senior election official,” the organization stated in a post on X.
Ninety-three of the 265 National Assembly seats up for grabs in the election on February 8 went to independent candidates, the majority of whom were supported by the PTI party.
Following the formation of a post-election alliance between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) last week, the PTI’s two principal opponents seem poised to establish a coalition government.
The PPP secured 54 seats, placing third, behind the PML-N’s 75 seats. Additionally, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has promised to provide them its 17 seats of support.
In the 266-member National Assembly, a party has to win 133 of the 265 contested seats to establish a government. Marriyum Aurangzeb, the head of the PML-N, stated that rather than making accusations in front of the media, Mr. Chattha ought to have gone to the Pakistani Election Commission with proof if any existed.
Speaking on Geo News, she stated that the commissioner did not provide any supporting documentation or reveal whether or not he had received any calls or texts.
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