Khan terms ECP’s response a ‘joke’, says will adopt legal course before taking to streets, tasks Qureshi to gather politicians to force ECP members to resign
With Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) making it clear that it was “not responsible for replying to any political party”, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday termed ECP’s response to his letter a “joke”.
Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, the PTI chief said that it was his right to ask the questions he asked. “This response sent by the ECP is a joke with me and people of Pakistan. So what if the ECP is a constitutional body? Can they steal the whole nation’s right and remain unanswerable?”
“This response is an insult to my voters and former chief justice Nasirul Mulk, who gave 40-point observations about the incompetence of ECP. We will talk to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and other political parties, which have raised objections to the present members,” he said.
Khan said that his party would also adopt a legal recourse against the commission before taking to the streets.
Moreover, Khan said that the judicial commission’s report and tribunal judgment presented recently were proofs that Elections 2013 were rigged. “It was also written in the judicial commission report that around 25 million ballot records were not found, which confirms that there was planned rigging in the elections.”
The PTI chief alleged that four members of the ECP were involved with the Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz (PML-N) in rigging the elections 2013. He went on to add that he questioned the 2013 elections to show the current system’s shortcomings. “Can the same election commission with all its flaws hold the impending elections including local bodies’ polls?” he asked.
Furthermore, Khan said he had assigned Shah Mehmood Qureshi to gather other politicians to force the election commission members involved in rigging to resign. “We will go to the Supreme Judicial Council after consulting parliamentarians and raise this issue. I do not want to resort to more protests,” Khan said.
ECP MAKES THINGS CLEAR:
Earlier on Tuesday, expressing dismay over the “tone and tenor” of Khan’s letter, the ECP had made it clear that only a superior authority, not the PTI, can seek an explanation from the poll body.
While admitting that “a political party has every right to write to the ECP”, the poll body in its three-point response to PTI’s letter said no political party has any right to seek explanation or dictate its terms to the poll body as it would be “tantamount to impeding the independence of the ECP as enshrined in the Constitution.”