“PTI demands CEC Raja to resign immediately, incumbent CEC [Sikandar Sultan Raja] has now become a controversial personality as he failed to stop rigging in elections,” Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said to reporters following his meeting with Imran Khan, the founder of the party, in the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi.
He went on to say that there should be no intervention and that any investigations into electoral irregularities should be impartial. Gohar continued, “We want the election results to reflect the will of the people.”
Additionally, Gohar Ali Khan insisted that the election results be released in accordance with Form 45 when many political parties claimed that the results based on Form 47 differed.
He emphasized that the disclosures made by the former Commissioner of Rawalpindi validated the PTI’s position on election manipulation, stating that “non-transparent” elections may jeopardize the International Monetary Fund (IMF) partnership with Pakistan.
He expressed concern that “the Election Commission has failed to fulfill its responsibility” and called for an examination of the conduct of the elections on February 8 and the accusations made by Liaquat Ali Chatha. He went on, “CEC Raja should step down so that the investigation into the irregularities on February 8 can be deemed non-controversial.”
Liaquat Ali Chatha, the commissioner of Rawalpindi who resigned from his position, made a startling “discovery” on Saturday when he admitted to being engaged in the manipulation of the Pakistan general elections of 2024. This added a another degree of controversy to the already contentious votes.
Accepting responsibility for what he called a “heinous crime,” Chatha accused Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and the Election Commission of Pakistan of being involved in the “rigging,” a charge that all parties rejected.
The presser came almost a week after the Feb 8 general elections as the ECP has already been in the crosshairs of several rigging allegations amidst PTI and other political parties’ nationwide protests, claiming they were deprived of their mandate.
Liaquat Ali Chatta’s accusations of election rigging against the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commission were categorically denied by the ECP.
In a statement, the spokesman claimed that the Rawalpindi commissioner was not given any orders from the ECP or any of its representatives to alter the election results that were under his purview.
Read more: PTI and Sunni Ittehad Council Unite for Governance
According to the spokesman, commissioners of any division are not Presiding Officers (POs), Returning Officers (ROs), or District Returning Officers (DROs) and do not directly participate in election administration.
Liaquat Ali Chattha was moved after the press conference, and Saif Anwar Jappa, the director general of the Rawalpindi Development Authority, was assigned the new responsibility.