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| India-Pakistan | |
| Govt rigged elections through 5.5 million extra ballot papers | |
| 2014-11-29 | |
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan on Friday accused the government of rigging the last year's general elections by printing 5.5 million extra ballot papers.
He also alleged that the police had been the rulers' election rigging force. "Punjab and Sindh have become police states," he said. The PTI leader said that those who had printed these 5.5 million ballot papers with a fraudulent intent indeed dealt a blow to the democracy in country. "It was one of the darkest chapters of Pakistan's history," Imran said, alleging that former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and caretaker governments of Punjab and Centre had direct hand in electoral rigging. Imran Khan said that if election rigging probe was not conducted and culprits were not brought to book, then the next general elections will be a contest between "rigging practitioners". "Each and every person involved in the rigging should be tried and asked about their motive behind trampling upon rights of millions of Pakistanis," he remarked. Imran said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should resign on grounds that he is a beneficiary of the rigging, and a fair probe could not be conducted under him. "We will never accept probe under PM Nawaz Sharif as he is the main beneficiary of rigging." The purpose of his sit-ins, he said, was to hold elements involved in rigging accountable and punish them as per law. The rigging was carried out through extra ballot papers, he claimed. Imran said the additional ballot papers were dispatched to specific constituencies with the purpose of rigging. Imran again expressed his surprise over how Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz bagged "10.5 million extra votes". "We did not know that the ex-chief justice was also involved in the rigging of last elections," said Imran Khan. "We were told that justice will be served to us in four months, but to no avail," he regretted. The PTI chief said, "Hundreds of our election petitions were dismissed on minor objections like those of full stops, comas and unimportant flaws." When there was a ray of hope for justice, "we lodged first protest after a year", he said. Imran alleged there was even post-poll rigging. He said the Zardari-led PPP government has destroyed Sindh in its tenure from 2008-13 and yet it surprisingly got more votes in 2013 elections than even Benazir Bhutto could get. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |