The Awami National Party (ANP) on Monday accused the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of attempting to rig the coming by-elections, saying Fakhrudin G Ibrahim’s resignation was not enough.
Addressing a news conference outside the Parliament House, ANP leaders Zahid Khan and Haji Adeel criticised the former chief election commissioner, saying his resignation alone was not sufficient, and he should uncover those sitting beside him when the rigging was taking place on May 11, the day of the general elections.
The party’s central spokesman, Khan said during the earlier polls, when the ANP was in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the ECP had imposed a ban on ministers’ visits to particular constituencies as well as on beginning any development work there.
However, Khan elaborated that in the current as well as previous by-polls, the ECP appeared to be sleeping. The ANP leader accused the ECP of wanting to rig the by-elections.
Training their guns at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman, the ANP central information secretary accused Imran Khan of engaging in summoning meetings of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial secretaries “to achieve his desired results in the by-elections”.
“We accepted the results of previous elections as well as the by-polls to keep the democratic system intact and functional,” said Khan.
He noted that when the ANP was in power, the then opposition was criticising them for the law and order and other crises, but “the situation is worst now”.
The ANP senator said his party had filed adjournment motions against the price hike and DI Khan jailbreak, as these issues were of great public concern.
Adeel, a senior leader of the party, accused the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government of trying to withdraw the powers of the provinces that were given to them under the 1973 constitution.
He said PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had recently passed a statement that the government vowed to alter Article 158 of the constitution that empowered each province with the rights if it had gas reservoirs.
“It is either fortunate or unfortunate that Punjab never put into use her own reserves of gas and coal, and relied on the resources of other provinces,” he said, asking “was that the reason that people gave PML-N government with mandate?”
To a question, Adeel said his party had requested a meeting of the Upper House of parliament in this connection and vowed to oppose it, adding that the government did not even enjoy two-third majority in the House.