Imran Khan's party demands CEC's resignation over alleged poll rigging

Islamabad: Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan's party on Tuesday demanded Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja's immediate resignation for failing to hold "free and fair" elections after allegations of massive poll rigging emerged.

The 71-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party demanded the CEC's resignation, asserting that he had "no right to stay in the position for a single day."

Raja, a retired civil servant, was appointed as the head of the Election Commission of Pakistan in January 2020 by the government of then Prime Minister Khan. But Khan soon developed differences with him while still in government and began to criticize him, and increased his criticism after the toppling of his government in April 2022.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Gohar Khan told the media after meeting incarcerated Khan in the Adiala Jail that the former premier asked him to demand the resignation of Raja.

"After meeting Khan sahib today, the PTI demands that the CEC resign. He has no right to stay in the position for a single day," Barrister Gohar Khan said outside Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail, where the PTI founder has been jailed.

"Since CEC failed to perform his duties we demand the CEC to resign immediately so that all probes should be impartial and fair and according to the mandate of the people," he said.

He also demanded that all the inquiries into poll discrepancies be impartial and without any interference. "We want the election results to be in accordance with the mandate of the public," Gohar Khan said.

He also demanded protection for the Commissioner Rawalpindi Liaquat Chattha and his family so that he should be part of the probe. Chattha revealed over the weekend that he rigged elections on thirteen seats in the Rawalpindi region.

He also said Chattha was a "whistleblower" who unveiled the details about rigging in the elections. "We demand that his life and his children's security must be ensured so that he can take part in any inquiry," he said.

Gohar Khan also warned that the International Monetary Fund program would be "damaged" if the poll results were not in accordance with Form 45s, the form showing the count of each polling station. He also said Pakistan could not afford further political turmoil and demanded that the same could only be prevented by the announcement of "free poll results".

Separately, Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmad speaking in the Senate also demanded that Raja should resign and proceedings of high treason under Article 6 of the Constitution should be initiated against him.

"Chairman sahib, the country witnessed the worst-ever rigging on Feb 8. These were fake elections and whatever government is formed on the basis of these polls would be fake," he said and demanded that the ECP should apologise for failing to fulfil its constitutional responsibility and the CEC should resign.

"Proceedings should be initiated against him under Article 6 of the Constitution and the Rs5 billion that was spent on the elections should be recovered from those responsible for rigging," he said.

On Saturday, Chattha, in a bombshell press conference, alleged that he oversaw the rigging to deprive Khan's PTI party of 13 seats, which were given to candidates who were "losing" the elections in the city.

Chattha also claimed that Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and CEC Raja were involved in the alleged rigging and resigned from his office after "accepting responsibility" for the manipulation of poll results.

On Saturday, a PTI spokesperson demanded that CEC Raja and Chief Justice Isa tender their resignations following the revelations by Chattha. Buoyed by the allegations of vote rigging, the party on Sunday demanded a judicial probe into the manipulation of the results of the elections.

Even after more than a week's passage, the ECP has yet to notify the victory of most of the independent candidates who have won National Assembly (NA) seats in the general elections.

The delay on the part of the ECP to officially notify the results of a majority of the independent candidates has raised concerns among their voters and stakeholders amid political wrangling over the numbers game for the formation of government in the Centre.

Independent candidates - a majority backed by the PTI party - won 93 of the 265 National Assembly seats that were contested in the February 8 election.

The PTI's two main rivals appear on course to form a coalition government after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's PML-N and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's PPP formed a post-poll alliance last week.

The PML-N won 75 seats, while the PPP came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has also agreed to support them with their 17 seats.

To form a government, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly.