Pakistan's election commission will conduct an inquiry following Rawalpindi commissioner Liaqat Ali Chattha's announcement.
A senior bureaucrat in Pakistan has confessed to aiding in the rigging of Pakistan’s elections, just a week after the polls, which were marred by accusations of manipulation, failed to produce a clear winner.
Liaqat Ali Chattha, the commissioner of Rawalpindi, a garrison city where the country's influential military is headquartered, announced on Saturday that he would surrender to the police and resign from his position.
"We converted the losers into winners, reversing margins of 70,000 votes in 13 national assembly seats," he told reporters, also implicating the head of the election commission and the country’s top judge.
According to Pakistan’s Dawn News, the commissioner admitted he was “deeply involved in serious crime like mega election rigging 2024” and said that “stabbing the country in its back” does not allow him sleep.
“I should be punished for the injustice I have done and others who were involved in this injustice should also be punished,” he added.
After Chattha’s announcement, Rawalpindi senior superintendent of police operations, Kamran Asghar, told Dawn the commissioner had not been arrested as no case was filed against him.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s election commission rejected Chattha’s allegations, but said in a statement that it would “hold an enquiry”.
In a news release, the electoral watchdog also said none of its officials ever issued any instructions to Chattha for a “change in the election results”.
But a leading advocacy group, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said that this confession revealed the “involvement of the state bureaucracy in rigging in Pakistan is beginning to be exposed”.
Protest
Thousands of people rallied in more than a dozen cities, including the capital Islamabad, on Saturday, claiming that the vote was rigged.
Reporting from Islamabad, Kamal Hyder said tens of thousands came out to protest despite the fact that the government had imposed restrictions on public gatherings.
“People are coming from all walks of life. Women, children, and entire families … have converged at the Press Club in Islamabad. They say their mandate has been stolen and the government is trying to put an illegitimate government into power which lost the election.”
After nearly a week of political drama following a fractured mandate delivered by the country’s voters in the February 8 elections, a six-party alliance led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), which won 75 seats, and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which secured 54 seats, is set to form the next government.
Incriminating
On Saturday, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) labeled the actions of Rawalpindi Commissioner Chattha as a "cheeky move" and "a cheap publicity tactic" ahead of his impending retirement on March 13. The party refuted Chattha's allegations, stating that they were entirely baseless and contrary to the actual facts. Meanwhile, imprisoned Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan described Chattha's confession as "incriminating." Khan asserted that the statement revealed widespread manipulation of election results, undermining the people's rightful mandate. He called for a thorough investigation and fair trial of all involved in the electoral fraud. Additionally, PTI official Ali Muhammad Khan emphasized that Chattha's admission validated their party's claims of being cheated and demanded the restoration of their mandate.
However, according to the official results, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated on multiple convictions, emerged as the clear winner of the elections, winning a total of 93 seats.
Who Won Elections 2024 In Pakistan ~ A Listening Post
Source : Aljazeera
0 Comments