- PTI chief urges CJP to take notice on rigging in May 11 general polls, demands verification of thumb prints in four constituencies
- Accusing Geo, Jang Group of being part of poll rigging, says PTI will boycott media organisation unless it apologises to party
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has urged Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Tassaduq Hussain Jillani to take suo motu notice of rigging in May 11 general elections held last year and demanded verification of thumb prints in four constituencies.
Addressing a press conference at Central Secretariat on Friday, Khan demanded action against those who were involved in rigging in polls.
“Today, I will present to you the extent of the rigging that took place, which was even more than we had expected,” said Khan.
The PTI chief mentioned that the PTI representative from NA-118, Hamid Zaman, put in Rs 5.7 million of his own money to acquire information about the vote count. He said that Zaman had received threats following his request to use fingerprint verification during the polls.
Khan also alleged that out of 325 bags of ballot sheets in the constituency, only 69 bags had been sealed and had the right material in them; as many as 256 of those bags were either empty or had incomplete material. He said that 170,000 votes were casted but 90,000 of the ballot papers were missing. He demanded that the recounting of the votes in the constituency should be conducted in front of the media.
“The returning officer is responsible for this,” said Khan, “the presiding officer’s task is to give the bags to the returning officer who must only accept them if they are sealed.”
Khan reiterated his allegation that former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry also provided support to the returning officials involved in rigging. He said that the election tribunals did not dispose of the cases within 120 days. He said that according to the Free and Fair Election network (FAFEN), 71,000 complaints were filed against the election results.
“Jang and Geo group was also part of the rigging process,” PTI chief alleged. He also announced that he will completely boycott Jang Group until they publicly apologise to PTI. He said that PTI will announce its future plan of action in a gathering scheduled on May 11 at D-Chowk in Islamabad.
PTI General Secretary Jahangir Tareen, PTI Information Secretary Shireen Mazari and other party leadership was also present on the occasion.