- PTI chief says special investigation team will take one week if it reopens ballot bags to examine them for alleged polls rigging
“The special investigation team (SIT), which is a part of the ordinance and which the Supreme Court can form, will only take one week to check the ballot bags. All the evidence is present inside the bags,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday told reporters after attending a session of the Judicial Commission (JC) probing the rigging allegations.
Khan claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) could not have received seven million additional votes and that the matter should be investigated. He reiterated his party’s stance that over 10 million excess ballot papers had been printed in the days preceding the May 2013 election. Those responsible for ordering excess ballot papers to be printed will also be unmasked, he said.
The PTI chief claimed that it had already been proved that the 2013 elections were rigged since 21 parties had come before the JC while the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said in a speech at Haripur that rigging took place in the elections.
Khan said the JC should also probe the role of provincial election commissioners, who he claimed had been appointed after an undisclosed agreement between the political parties.
Moreover, he claimed that the PML-N lawyer was attempting to influence the commission’s proceedings by trying to show that the judiciary was being targeted by the investigation.
“Just because one judge committed one wrong does not mean the entire judiciary is complicit, just the way that if one army general commits a wrong does not mean the entire army is to blame. This is a plan to influence the judiciary and stop the investigation,” he said.
When asked as to why the PTI had not included the name of former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhary in its list of witnesses, Khan said that he was referring to returning officers. “Bigger names will be unveiled as the match progresses,” he said.