Pakistan: Imran Khan demands resignation of election chief for favouring ruling party

Former prime minister alleges there were four million deceased voters included in the electoral rolls

By PTI

Published: Mon 18 Jul 2022, 8:34 PM

Last updated: Mon 18 Jul 2022, 8:56 PM

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief Imran Khan demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja on Monday.

Khan alleged that the top official tried his best to turn the by-election outcome in Punjab province in favour of the ruling PML-N party. A day after securing a resounding victory in Punjab provincial bypolls, Khan thanked youngsters and women who came out in large numbers to vote for his party.

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PTI clinched 15 provincial assembly seats out of the 20 up for grabs, dealing a stunning blow to the 13-party alliance led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on its home turf. According to unofficial and preliminary results, the ruling PML-N could only bag four seats.

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Pakistan: Imran Khan says election body turned blind eye over Punjab bypolls

“During the by-polls they used all the tactics to defeat us. Police threatened our people. Officers acted as workers of PML-N,” he claimed, adding that Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz had no right to use the police in such a way.

He also alleged that there were four million deceased voters included in the electoral rolls.

Khan said that the CEC Raja tried his best to turn the polls in favour of the PML-N headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“I am disappointed in the chief election commissioner. How could he let all this happen? He is not competent to run the Election Commission of Pakistan and is biased towards a political party. Raja should immediately resign,” the cricketer-turned-politician said.

He said that his party did not trust the CEC, citing the example of senate elections in 2021 in which Khan said evidence of bribery was evident. .

He said that despite several cases of rigging during polls being brought before the CEC, he never punished anyone, which encouraged malpractice as no one feared accountability.

Despite all these tactics, Khan said: “We won as people came out to cast their votes like never before.”