A senior bureaucrat in Pakistan has stated he helped rig Pakistan’s elections, every week after polls marred by allegations of manipulation returned no clear winner.
On Saturday, Liaqat Ali Chattha, commissioner of the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi, the place the nation’s highly effective army has its headquarters, stated he would hand himself over to police and step down from his place.
“We transformed the losers into winners, reversing margins of 70,000 votes in 13 nationwide meeting seats,” he informed reporters, additionally implicating the pinnacle of the election fee and the nation’s prime choose.
In accordance with Pakistan’s Dawn News, the commissioner admitted he was “deeply concerned in severe crime like mega election rigging 2024” and stated that “stabbing the nation in its again” doesn’t enable him sleep.
“I ought to be punished for the injustice I’ve finished and others who have been concerned on this injustice also needs to be punished,” he added.
After Chattha’s announcement, Rawalpindi senior superintendent of police operations, Kamran Asghar, informed Daybreak the commissioner had not been arrested as no case was filed towards him.
In the meantime, Pakistan’s election fee rejected Chattha’s allegations, however stated in a press release that it might “maintain an enquiry”.
In a information launch, the electoral watchdog additionally stated none of its officers ever issued any directions to Chattha for a “change within the election outcomes”.
However a number one advocacy group, the Human Rights Fee of Pakistan, stated that this confession revealed the “involvement of the state paperwork in rigging in Pakistan is starting to be uncovered”.
Hundreds protest
In the meantime on Saturday, hundreds of individuals rallied in additional than a dozen cities, together with the capital Islamabad, claiming that the vote was rigged.
Reporting from Islamabad, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder stated tens of hundreds got here out to protest even supposing the federal government had imposed a restriction on public gatherings.
“Individuals are coming from all walks of life. Girls, youngsters and full households … have converged on the Press Membership in Islamabad. They are saying their mandate has been stolen and the federal government is making an attempt to place an illegitimate authorities into energy which misplaced the election.”
After almost every week of political drama following a fractured mandate delivered by the nation’s voters within the February 8 elections, a six-party alliance led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), which received 75 seats, and Pakistan Individuals’s Celebration (PPP), which secured 54 seats is ready to kind the subsequent authorities.
Nonetheless, in keeping with the official outcomes the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the occasion of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who’s presently incarcerated on a number of convictions, emerged as a transparent winner of the elections, successful a complete of 93 seats.
‘Incriminating’
In a post on X on Saturday, PMLN termed the Rawalpindi Commissioner’s actions as “a cheeky transfer just a few days earlier than his retirement” and “an inexpensive publicity tactic”. Chattha is because of retire on March 13.
“The particular person has alleged that the PMLN candidates have been pressured to provide a lead of 70, 70,000, whereas the information are utterly totally different from his accusation,” the political occasion stated.
Nonetheless, from jail, PTI’s Khan referred to as Chattha’s confession “incriminating”.
“His assertion serves as a stark revelation of the countrywide systematic manipulation of election outcomes the place PTI’s important leads have been deceitfully tampered into losses, depriving the individuals of their rightful mandate, not solely within the Nationwide Meeting but in addition in Provincial Assemblies,” Khan said in a submit on the social media platform X.
“PTI additionally requires a good investigation and significant trial of all these concerned on this brazen mandate theft,” he added.
Senior PTI official Ali Muhammad Khan informed reporters in Islamabad that Chattha’s assertion proved his occasion was cheated. “We have to be returned our mandate,” he stated.
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