ISLAMABAD
PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Friday said Rana Bhagwandas, a highly-respected gentleman, should not be humiliated by being appointed as a powerless chief election commissioner (CEC).
He asserted that the CEC would not be able to assert the independence and transparency of the ECP unless the other four election commissioners were also appointed in a transparent manner with no political affiliations.
Imran said, “We saw this in the last elections where PTI fell victim to massive rigging – or as is now gaining popular coinage as “punctures” – with a helpless CEC unable to control the active bias of the election commissioner especially from Punjab, who remains controversial even today.”
Imran also expressed concern over the fact that the PTI, despite being the second largest national party, was not consulted in the appointed of the four election commissioners and was only nominally consulted in the case of the CEC.
The PTI chairman reiterated that an honest credible citizen like Bhagwandas, who has served the country with dedication in a long illustrious career, should not be humiliated by being placed as a powerless head of an ECP that has yet to function in an independently assertive and transparent manner which would allow for truly fair and free elections.
Imran made it clear that the PTI would not accept a biased and weak ECP headed by a powerless CEC and politically- biased ECs some of whom intervened in the electoral process directly to undermine the fair and transparent electoral process, including on polling day itself.