- Imran Khan says party to hold rally in Lahore on Oct 9, will deliberate on protest in federal capital after Oct 11 by-poll
- PTI chief laments that no election official was punished despite overwhelming evidence of irregularities and rigging in 2013 general elections
After the Islamabad administration’s refusal to granting permission to hold a rally in the Red Zone of the federal capital, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has postponed its October 4 protest at D-Chowk and would instead hold a rally in Lahore on October 9.
The PTI Central Organising Committee announced on Tuesday that the party’s leadership would take a decision on holding the protest rally in the federal capital after the October 11 by-polls in Punjab.
Earlier in August, PTI Chairman Imran Khan had announced that his party would hold a protest in front of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Headquarters in Islamabad if its provincial members do not tender their resignations by October 4. He had said that there was no justification for the ECP members to hold their posts after 21 political parties had claimed that rigging took place during the 2013 elections.
The government and PTI had locked horns over holding the Oct 4 rally with the capital administration offering Parade Ground near Faizabad as the venue for the rally while the PTI insisted on making camp at D-Chowk.
Addressing a press conference later in the day, Imran Khan said that the party will decide about holding the protest at D-Chowk after the by-polls in NA-122 scheduled for October 11.
He further said, “I myself will give a protest call to PTI supporters after October 11.”
The PTI chief lashed out at the ECP, saying that the body responsible for holding elections wanted PTI to lose the by-polls. He added that no official was punished despite rigging in May 2013 general elections in a number of constituencies having been proved. Khan said that he feared that the PML-N would also run away from by-polls in NA-122 like it did in NA-154.
Commenting over the NA-154 case, he said that the election tribunal had declared the PML-N candidate ineligible to contest the elections and ordered re-elections but the “PML-N obtained a stay order fearing imminent defeat”.
NA-122 and NA-154 (Lodhran) were among the four controversial constituencies, the other two being NA-110 (Sialkot), NA-125 (Lahore), where PTI had demanded for voters’ thumbprint verification in the hopes of proving its rigging allegations. The tribunal ordered re-polling in NA-122, declaring the election in the constituency null and void.
Meanwhile, in statement regarding annual report of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), Imran Khan said that the revelations were shocking but not surprising. He said that NEPRA has unveiled bitter performance of all power companies in its report for 2014-15, revealing that all firms operating in the public and private sectors sent wrong bills to consumers. The report also indicated orchestrated electricity shortfalls and load shedding.
The chairman PTI said, “PML-N government has clearly fed the nation lies and robbed citizens through fraudulent electricity meters and inflated bills. Not only is the government fleecing the people but as the NEPRA report reveals the government has been unable to rectify the dismal state of affairs of the whole power generation structure including the dilapidated state of the technical infrastructure”.
“This failure has come despite the PML-N being in power 6 times in Punjab and thrice in the Centre. So much for experience! The only place where PML-N’s experience shows is when it is used to enrich the Sharif economic empire,” he said.
Khan pointed out that it was not just inefficiency but also deliberate mala fide intent on the part of the government that allowed plants to remain closed while unlicensed plants were allowed to continue operations.
“Faulty metres, wrong billing, fiddling with and violating upper and lower voltage limits, faulty operations – the NEPRA Report is a damning indictment of the power sector and its functioning along with the government and its unresponsive bureaucracy. And those who have had to suffer the dire consequences have been the hapless citizens of Pakistan.”
Khan demanded immediate accountability of all those responsible for this ‘shameful’ and corrupt state of affairs. “The process of accountability must begin from the top this time and must be transparent and decisive,” he demanded.