A senior bureaucrat in Pakistan has mentioned he helped rig Pakistan’s elections, per 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, mentioned 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 top of the election fee and the nation’s high decide.
In keeping with Pakistan’s Daybreak Information, the commissioner admitted he was “deeply concerned in critical crime like mega election rigging 2024” and mentioned that “stabbing the nation in its again” doesn’t permit him sleep.
“I must be punished for the injustice I’ve performed and others who had 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 mentioned in a press release that it could “maintain an enquiry”.
In a information launch, the electoral watchdog additionally mentioned 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, mentioned that this confession revealed the “involvement of the state forms in rigging in Pakistan is starting to be uncovered”.
1000’s protest
In the meantime on Saturday, 1000’s 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 mentioned tens of 1000’s 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 whole 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 per 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 Folks’s Celebration (PPP), which secured 54 seats is about to kind the subsequent authorities.
Nevertheless, based on the official outcomes the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the occasion of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who’s at present incarcerated on a number of convictions, emerged as a transparent winner of the elections, successful a complete of 93 seats.
‘Incriminating’
In a publish on X on Saturday, PMLN termed the Rawalpindi Commissioner’s actions as “a cheeky transfer a number of days earlier than his retirement” and “an affordable publicity tactic”. Chattha is because of retire on March 13.
“The individual has alleged that the PMLN candidates had been pressured to provide a lead of 70, 70,000, whereas the information are utterly totally different from his accusation,” the political occasion mentioned.
Nevertheless, 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 had been deceitfully tampered into losses, depriving the individuals of their rightful mandate, not solely within the Nationwide Meeting but additionally in Provincial Assemblies,” Khan mentioned in a publish 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 should be returned our mandate,” he mentioned.
