Islamabad: Jailed former Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s party demanded a judicial probe into allegations of vote rigging even as two major political parties failed to reach a power-sharing formula to form a coalition govt.
Though independent candidates backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the maximum number of seats in Parliament, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have announced they will form a coalition govt after the Feb 8 elections resulted in a hung Parliament.
The post-poll alliance by PML-N and PPP could mean that PTI will not be able to form the next federal govt, prompting Khan’s party to allege that the two rival parties were trying to steal the people’s mandate with the help of the powerful establishment.
Khan’s beleaguered party received a major boost when a senior govt official in charge of the election process in the garrison city of Rawalpindi alleged that rigging took place and dragged the chief election commissioner and chief justice into it. PTI on Sunday demanded a judicial probe into the allegations.
Rawalpindi division commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha alleged he oversaw the rigging to deprive PTI of 13 seats which were given to losing candidates after fake votes were added to their name. Chattha claimed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa were involved in the alleged rigging.
PTI leader Gohar Ali Khan said the allegations by Chattha corroborated what the party had been saying all along. “That is why PTI demands a judicial commission is formed and an inquiry is conducted. And not just an inquiry, but those (involved) should be made to join the inquiry,” he said, adding that the report of the inquiry should be shared with the people.